What determines your follower base on Twitter?

So for the past few days I’ve been mulling about what exactly determines your follower base on Twitter..

Is it predominantly the topis you tweet about? For e.g: Marketing, Leadership, Social Media

Is it your online brand image?

Is it your offline brand image?

is it your Profile description on Twitter?

Is it your Twitter profile photo ?

Is it the quality (read as relevant and valuable information) of your tweets?

Is it the quantify (read as frequency) of your Twitter activity?

Is it having some Twitter activity every single day?

Is it a complex equation with all of the variables above?

What’s your view? Leave a comment to let me know

Feeling Low – 4 Ways Social Media Can Lift your spirits!

We all go through phases when we feel low. Sometimes we know why, sometimes we can’t put a finger on it…

And yet the one thing we all know is that the sooner we beat the blues, the better for us.

And from personal experience, I can say that Social Media can help lift your spirits.. Here are a list of ways that Social Media has helped me

1) Read a blog that makes you laugh or inspires or makes you forget the blues. For e.g.: I check this blog Worth a Read, and always find something which is an instant mood lifter

2) Login to FaceBook and look at the photos of friends and family. Most people tend to upload only the good pictures, fun moments or interesting events. So you get to see the “good slice of others life”; and it usually changes your mood

3) Pinterest – You will always find something to laugh about or something which will amuse or interest you on Pinterest. Click here for one example

4) Twitter – Go through the tweets of random people or someone your know or someone really funny, and your mood will instantly change. For e.g.: Check this list of 25 Twitter Accounts to Make you Laugh. And at least one of them will cheer your spirits

Has Social Media helped you beat the blues? If yes, leave a comment to let me know HOW?

Does Twitter have a memory?

“Does Twitter have a memory?” is something I have been mulling about… Going down memory lane to what I studied in High School Computer Science Basics..

Is it comparable to a RAM (Random Access Memory)? – Fast, Anytime Anywhere access, And somewhat random in user tweets, reactions and responses? (akin to human behaviors, which are many times random)

Is it comparable to a ROM (Read Only Memory)? – No option to “edit” a tweet, can only delete a tweet

Is it comparable to a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory)? – Using Twitter tools, you can program your tweets so that you’re Twitter activity is continuous, and not really dependent on your “real presence”!

Is it comparable to an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory)? – Yes! You can erase tweets once they are published, and can take tweets away from memory. Even otherwise, with the continuous stream of tweets, I wonder how long people actually remember tweets (their own and others)

Is it comparable to a EEPROM (Extendable Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory)? – And you can extend your Twitter connection in Twitter, and beyond Twitter (to other social media platforms) or even to real life

Or is it really a little of all of the above?

Offline Status = Anti Social, Online Status = Super Social???

Human Behavior has always fascinated me a great deal – Both in the real world and in the “virtual” world. And ever since I’ve been active on Social Media for the past few years, I’ve noticed a few behavioral patterns in people I know.. Something which intrigued me, interested me and even puzzled me…

Broadly, I noticed the following categories of behaviors (primarily FaceBook and Twitter)

Category 1 : Offline Status = Super Social, Online Status = Anti Social
These are the kind of people who have a zillion friends in the real world. Everywhere they go, they know someone, or are well known within specific networks. They have an active social life, actively participate in one / many activities of interest to them. What I broadly call “Super Social” as far as the real world is concerned. As for as their online presence in social networks goes, it almost does not exist. In some cases they have a profile on FaceBook or Twitter, but hardly connect with any of their friends neither do they post updates about their active social life. I asked a few such people I personally know about why they were not so active on Social Media (given the whole world is headed there). Several valid responses, the Top ones were “Not interested in connecting virtually when I can do the real thing“, “No time as the real-world keeps me busy enough“, “Don’t still get how you can be social in the virtual world!“

Category 2 : Offline Status = Super Social, Online Status = Super Social
These are the kinds of people who are “Super Social ” in the real world – They have friends everywhere they go, They are well known and popular in the circles / groups / communities they’re a part of. And they carry this side of their personality to the online world as well. So they have a zillion connections on FaceBook, Several thousands of followers on Twitter (& also follow several thousands of people), etc etc. They are active on most of the Social networking sites and every day there are several updates from them. My only thoughts are “Just how do they manage to do it?” and “Don’t they ever sleep?” – However they do it, hats-off to them!

Category 3 : Offline Status = Anti Social, Online Status = Anti Social
This is the kind of people who keep pretty much to themselves : both in the real world and in the virtual world. They have very few social connections in the real world, and keep it this way even in the online world. Many of them don’t even have profiles on FaceBook, and while some of them do, they barely connect with anyone or update their status. Their favorite responses “Not interested” or “I really don’t know what to say ” or “Who’d be interested anyways!“. Hmm. Well as long as they are happy with their status, who can say / do anything?

Category 4 : Offline Status = Selectively Social, Online Status = Selectively Social
This is the category that most people I know usually fall into. They are selectively social in their associations and connections in the real world (Some past / history, common interests, hobbies, topics of conversation, etc. usually drive engagement), and exhibit similar behavior in the virtual world. They typically connect with people they know or want to know better for a specific reason, are restrictive about their privacy settings, and guarded about what they share on Social Media.

Category 5 : Offline Status = Anti Social, Online Status = Super Social
This last category of individuals intrigues me the post. They are “Anti Social” in the real world – No smile, No greeting, No Hello (even if they know you), barely have an active social network or social life in the real world. And when you see their online status (read FaceBook, Twitter, etc.) you will be pleasantly surprised (in some instances almost shocked) to see their activities, connections, how frequently they share content, how much they disclose about themselves.. They are completely “transformed” individuals – Almost like a “dual” or “split personality”.

I wonder often what triggers such a drastic change.
Is it because they don’t have a real world social life they try to compensate in the online world?
Is it because they can start afresh & build new connections with people across the world?
Is it because they enjoy the freedom & choices they can make in social media?
Is it because they are more comfortable to connect, engage and interact “virtually” – without Face-2-Face interactions

On one hand it’s good. As Aristotle said “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.” . So better to build social connections – even if it is in the “virtual world” than have none at all!

On the other hand, I wonder how one can have such contrasting sides to their personality?

NOTE: By pure logic, I am sure that several other combinations of status are possible. However, I have listed above the one’s I have pre-dominantly observed.

ADDENDUM – For ease of understanding, I have depicted this in a Matrix.. Refer below

What’s your view? What categories of behaviors have you seen? Leave a comment to let me know…

Why I don’t have even 100 followers on Twitter even after 3 years?

I created my first Twitter handle in March 2009. Of course, it was private. Along the way, I also created several additional Twitter handles for myself  – each with a specific personal objective – Like one was a personal log of my life, One was to capture my incessant thoughts, One was a repository of interesting data / links I came across, One was for all the quotes I read,etc.  Over time, I could not keep up with regularly tweeting on all of these. And hence, some became defunct along the way.

In 2010, I decided that I would focus on only one of my Twitter handles. At about the same time, I also began to understand the power and reach of Twitter and hence I converted it to a public profile. Along the way, I tweeted, followed several interesting handles and began to understand how to really use Twitter. Not only did these interactions teach me about Twitter, they also enriched my understanding on human behaviors!!

And the reality today is that I YET DO NOT have even 100 followers on Twitter!  (Got pretty close once, but not yet managed the MAGIC 100 L). Over the past few days, I have done a critical analysis to understand WHY this is the case when every second person I know seems to have 1000+ followers on Twitter… Do I not get it? Am I doing something wrong here?

After some analysis, observation and introspection, I figured WHY?

In this blog, I have listed the key reasons based on my analysis. The reason I am sharing is so that YOU LEARN from my experiences and probably reach the 100 or 1000 or a million mark much sooner that I do!

1) My personal objectives from Twitter changed frequently
To be honest, when I started using Twitter I did not have any specific objective. I started using it out of curiosity and because everywhere I went people spoke of Twitter! Along the way, the objective has changed from being a learning platform, to being a knowledge sharing platform, to being a personal log, to being a platform to market and promote my blogs and writings, etc. etc. And there’s nothing wrong with these changing objectives.. But just that to see tangible results in anything in life or business – you need to have a specific objective and focus on it for some time duration to see visible results!

The key take-away is this: You need to have specific objective(s) for your Twitter usage. In fact if you have SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time Bound) objectives, your Twitter usage will be more effective.  And the objective can be anything that it important to you – But you should be aware of it and make it explicit to yourself – Simply because you will eventually follow people and tweet based on your personal objectives. And your followers are usually a function of who you follow and what you tweet. And of course, there will / can be deviations here – But the point is at least 80% of your Twitter behavior has to be governed by your objectives!

2) I had a set of Twitter guidelines on whom I would follow
Twitter is a social media platform. And the focus is really on “Social” here. And while there are so many tips, suggestions and guidelines on whom you should follow.. I had my own guidelines which were:
i) The tweets should be “relevant” in my personal context and aligned to my objectives
ii) I will not follow a handle because they follow me – No “Follow Back” policy, unless again it is “personally relevant”
iii) I will be able to devote at most 30 minutes a day on Twitter. And my focus was always on how I could maximize my personal Return on Time Invested in line with my objectives – Trust me! 30 minutes is also a stretch for a working mother!
These guidelines did come at a price. But I was willing to pay this price!

The key take-away is this: Irrespective of all the tips, tricks, suggestions, advice available galore in Twitter-verse, take a minute to reflect on what your own guidelines are with respect to your SMART objectives. That is the key to your personal success on Twitter!

3) Most of my real world friends are NOT on Twitter
Again, something which surprised me – But it’s TRUE! Most of my real world friends (both personal and professional) are NOT on Twitter! And though some are, they barely use it. And the reason is that Twitter is really not an integral element for their personal commitments or professional responsibilities. And hence, the chances that I get some followers from my real life connections are abysmally small. So, I need to start building new networks and relationships in the online world. And this takes time!

The key take-away is this: It’s a BIG BIG PLUS if your real-world (personal and professional) friends are on Twitter. They usually become your initial set of followers and your network has the potential to grow from here!

4) I have not been regular in the usage of Twitter
To be honest, I have “courted”  Twitter in brief spells from 2009 to the start of 2012. So there will be a day in which I post 30+ tweets (I love Twitter) and then probably 30 days with no Twitter activity (I forget Twitter) and then probably 3 days when I don’t want to see Twitter (I don’t like Twitter) and then days when I don’t have time for Twitter (Twitter is way down in my priority list).

And though I know that the quality of content that I tweet is good and will have a global audience, the point is that if I exhibit “random tweeting patterns”, chances are that others will also “randomly read my tweets”. And hence, I have lost several followers along the way. It was only this year (2012) that I have become more disciplined and focused on the usage of Twitter. So hopefully over a period of time, I will re-build a follower base!

The key take-away is this: A consistent usage pattern on Twitter helps in building and retaining a follower base on! You can use tools for this – But ensure some degree of consistency. It can be 3 tweets a day or 3 tweets a week. But over a 3 month period, figure a pattern that works for you – again aligned to your SMART objectives. And stick to it!

5) I am NOT YET an online / off-line celebrity
Real but TRUE! I am NOT YET an online / off-line celebrity (Though I hope to get there some day J). I am probably just like you in a quest to find my TRUE identity in the real and virtual world! Yes! I am a working mother, an active blogger  and blog for several sites of global repute .

And yes! I’ve had my moments of online and offline glory! For e.g.: My blog 12 Most Wonderful Moments in the First Year of Motherhood  was tweeted / Re-tweeted by celebrities like Alyssa Milano (Yes! The Hollywood actress and former singer) & Jure Klepic (who was represented in Forbes’ Top 10 Influencers in Social Media) and it went viral after that.

Does that make me a mini-celebrity with moments of celebrity status? Probably, Yes in select circles.

But does that make me a celebrity enough that thousands of people will follow on Twitter? Probably, NO! And hence I probably may never get as many followers as Lady Gaga or Amitabh Bachchan or Katy Perry or Shakira or Shah Rukh Khan or Rihana or Oprah Winfrey or Guy Kawasaki or Deepak Chopra. And hence, I need to work hard to build my follower base; and even harder to retain them with high quality tweets on a consistent basis!

The key take-away is this: It helps if you are an online / off-line celebrity to get your initial follower base and retain these followers. However over a period of time, you need to tweet regularly to increase your follower base and retain existing followers.

6) Twitter was not integral to my overall Strategy
Again a great personal revelation! For a long time, there was no need for me to use Twitter as I did not have a SMART objective and hence, no real motivation to use Twitter. Consequently, I did NOT spend time to use it nor did I make a conscious effort to read and understand about the Twitter developments, the new features, extensions, add-ons, tools, etc.

But once, my objectives were well defined, Twitter became an integral element to my overall strategy – And hence today I use Twitter for specific objectives.

The key take-away is this: Twitter needs to be an element in your overall strategy. And the strategy has to be aligned to your SMART objectives to achieve Twitter Success.

Ending Pearls of WISDOM:

• Have SMART Objectives for your Twitter usage
• Define your own guidelines for Twitter usage in line with your objectives
• Review your success against your objectives periodically
• Re-define your Objectives, as appropriate

Lastly, Have fun along the way! Learn! Grow! Evolve! Make new Twitter friends and connections!
And leave a legacy on Twitter that you and your grandchildren will be proud of!
On that note, Happy Tweeting!

Women on Twitter

As I did my research for the Women’s Day Series, I was surprised to find the number of lists on Women on Twitter… I am yet to create my own list and it will take some time since I have just become active on Twitter. Nevertheless, I have compiled all the useful and interesting links I found about Women on Twitter…

Hope you find this compilation useful!

The Nifty Top 50 Women on Twitter @ http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-nifty-50-top-women-of-twitter-for-2011/

Twitters Top 75 Badass Women @ http://www.bitrebels.com/social/twitter%E2%80%99s-top-75-badass-women/ Top

Business Women to Follow on Twitter @ http://www.mba-online-program.com/top-women-to-follow-on-twitter 8/

 Extraordinary Women to Follow on Twitter @ http://www.8womendream.com/27075/more-8-women-dreamers-on-twitter/ 

18 Funny Women you should be following on Twitter @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/18-funny-women-on-twitter_n_1224751.html &  http://holykaw.alltop.com/18-funny-women-to-follow-on-twitter  

20 Inspiring Young Female Founders to Follow on Twitter @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/02/10/20-inspiring-young-female-founders-to-follow-on-twitter/

 8 Women to Follow on Twitter @ http://businessontwitter.co.uk/twitter/2011/03/international-womens-day-8-women-to-follow-on-twitter/

Top 20 Business Women to Follow on Twitter @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2010/10/06/womanzworld-top-20-business-women-to-follow-on-twitter/

 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

People you should follow on Twitter @ http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/people-you-should-follow-on-twitter

 The Listorious 140 Twitterers : The Most Listed People on Twitter @ http://listorious.com/top/listed

The Most Powerful Twitter Users @ http://tweet.grader.com/top/users

The First 99 People to Follow on Twitter @ http://technmarketing.com/2010/08/the-first-99-people-to-follow-on-twitter/

9 Specific Ways YOU can use Twitter…

Twitter is increasingly becoming one of the most popular Social Networking platforms. While there are many reasons for the explosive growth of Twitter across the globe; if I had to list down the top 5 reasons on why Twitter has gained in popularity, they are below:

1) The introduction of the Tweet of 140 characters
 a) You can tweet from the web or mobile
 b) The 3S Factor – It’s Short, Specific and Simple!!!

2) It gives you the option to choose who you would like to Follow based on your interest – It is your personal choice ONLY! Subsequently you can Follow / Unfollow at will

3)  Easy to use interface for typing a Tweet. Of course, it takes time to understand other features but just typing a Tweet is simple and can be done easily

4)  Option to choose the level of privacy – You can control who reads your tweets

5)  No limit to the number of followers for a Twitter handle – Everyone loves the concept of abundance, infinite and limitless

While many individuals use Twitter for many reasons, in this blog I have listed the 9 Most Specific Ways YOU can use Twitter – The list below has been compiled based on my observations of Twitter usage over the last 3 years, my own personal usage of Twitter and by surveying others in the world of Twitter.

1) A personal log of your activities, thoughts and emotions
Many of us like to have a personal log of our daily activities, events, achievements, thoughts and emotions. Twitter can help you do just that – Provided you are disciplined about tweeting. If this is your key focus, using your mobile would be the preferred input device for tweeting.

2) A log of all that you read
Many of us tend to be content consumers in our life. We read from many different sources and like to have a consolidated repository for our own future reference. Twitter can enable you to consolidate all that you read and believe is worthy of storing, consolidating and archiving

3) To Share
Many of us like to share all that we know, all that we read, all that we learn, all that we believe can be of value to someone at some point in time – Twitter helps you to share with a known and unknown face anywhere across the globe

4) To Connect with others
Inherent to the human nature is the need to connect, to bond. And many of us like to connect with like-minded people, connect to people we admire, connect with the wise, connect with the successful, connect with celebrities – Just to listen to their voices, to know them better, to get a slice of their life, to unravel their thoughts, to know what keeps them going, to hear their views, opinions and to get the latest news

5) To Learn
Twitter can be a great learning platform – on any subject. If you are clear about what you want to learn, the time horizon you have in mind and the time you are willing to invest – you can adopt different strategies on how you can accomplish this. But at a high level, this translates to identifying the Twitter handles that are considered knowledgeable in the specific area(s) under question, and then follow their tweets. Over a period of time, you would have learnt way beyond your own expectation and imagination

6) To Create a Personal Brand
Many of us like to have a personal brand of our own – It can be as a technology expert, a great chef, a spiritual guru, a great parent, a benevolent advisor, the encyclopedia for answers on one / many subjects. And Twitter helps you to create this brand – Provided you focus, think, plan and tweet accordingly.

7) To garner support for a specific cause
One of the most powerful usages of Twitter is to amass support for a specific cause – it could be to donate blood for a medical emergency or to gather votes for a reality contest or a larger global issue of policy, governance, etc. which you strongly believe in. And Twitter can be very effectively used for creating awareness to a large base of global audience in real-time

8) To get a dose of motivation, inspiration and humor
This was a bit of a surprise! But a lot of people said that the primary reason for them to use Twitter was to get a dose of motivation, inspiration and humor – It could be for a specific low time in your day, to a blue moment in life, or just that one tweet to kick-start your day on a positive note, or that daily health tip which will give you the fuel to stick to your diet and exercise regime…

9) Just Like That!
I hear this a lot. A lot of people use Twitter with no specific intent, no specific objective and no specific agenda. They use it because it exists, because everyone around them is using it, because they have time..

In reality, majority of us use Twitter for one / many of the objectives listed above. Your primary objective on Twitter Usage will determine the quality and quantity of your tweets, your behavior and tweeting patterns. However, in the long run (say 10, 20 or 30 years from now) you will end-up with a huge volume of your own tweets covering a range of topics and tweeted with different intents. While traversing this growing volume of tweets will become a challenge to individuals like you and me, it will also provide ample opportunities for businesses on tweet segmentation, grouping, consolidation and aggregation.

While it is the start of the New Year 2012, it is good to review and re-think your usage of Twitter & if you need to review your own personal tweeting strategy.

On that Note.. Happy New Year 2012! And Happy Tweeting!!!

Content Life Cycle on Twitter

The content life cycle typically consists of the following stages
[1] Content Creation,
[2] Content Review
[3] Content Approval
[4] Content Publishing
[5] Content Distribution
[6] Content Consumption
[7] Content Modification
[8] Content Archival
[9] Content Retirement

Typically, each of these stages has different owners, different activities, different costs, different entry and exit points, different tools, different revenue models, different actors, different end-users, etc.

On Twitter, the content life cycle is significantly different in comparison…..
1) A single tweet by a user is a combination of Content Creation, self-review of the Content, self-Approval of the Content and self-publishing of the content
2) Content Distribution is done on Twitter itself when a tweet is published
3) By virtue of the followers / Re-tweets on Twitter, Content Consumption is also done on Twitter itself
4) Content Modification is possible by the Content Creator / Content Consumer by adding / enhancing and editing the original content as a new tweet
5) Content Archival and Retirement is again the responsibility of the Content Creator. In the long run, this can be a challenging ordeal if one has not thought about the primary objective of Twitter usage and structured their tweets accordingly..

In conclusion,
• Twitter is the medium that is used for all these stages of the content life cycle & hence completely transformed the content life cycle
• In the long run, individuals / enterprises which are able to define monetization strategies around this new content life cycle will have a competitive edge

How many followers do you have on Twitter?

Why there is so much observation, focus and attention given to the number of followers one has on Twitter?

The more followers you have – the more elevated is your social status – both in the real world and the online world…..

Is it because it makes you happy?
Is it because it makes you proud?
Is it because it makes you feel good?
Is it because it increases your visibility?
Is it because it is a personal achievement?
Is it because it makes you feel like a mini-celebrity?
Is it because it gives you a wider reach for your expressions?
Is it because they have the potential to make you a celebrity?
Is it because it improves your networking? – Personal & Professional
Is it because it enables you to create, manage and enhance your personal brand?

Would it not suffice if you have a select set of followers (however small) who really value your tweets and you are able to create an impact on their thoughts, on their decisions on their life?

A perspective on Twitter

Over the past 3 years, I have spent significant amount of time on Twitter – primarily as an observer of usage, user patterns and behaviors.

Some Observations, Views & Insights:
• A great number of end-users are not yet clear of why they are using this platform. They are simply using it because it exists!!! And had it never existed, it would really not have made any “real difference” in their lives. And this is not a figment of my imagination, but also qualified by several active user’s of the platform.

• Like with any platform utilization, you can maximize your gains only if you
o Have clarity on why you are using the tool
 Is it a personal log?
 Is it for business purposes?
 Is it as a marketing platform?
 Is it simply because it’s available?
 Is it because you have time in surplus?
 Is it because you want to learn & gain knowledge?
 Is it because you want to share with the world at large?
 Is it because you want to create a brand – either personal or professional?
 Is it because you get to control – What you say? Whom you follow? Who can follow you?
 Is it because you get to connect with people that you never thought you ever can; & actually see in real-time what they are really?

o Understand it
 Its features
 Its capabilities
 Its limitations
 Its reach
 Its power

o Effectively use it
By leveraging its capabilities
 By being updated on new features & trends ; and leveraging them
 By aligning its utilization to your primary objective

• A large majority of users have limited awareness on the security aspects of the platform

• Most end-users are completely oblivious to the fact that the tweets they post can affect and impact their lives sometime in the future!!! – Could be positive and negative

• If you’re a serious Tweeter & not yet a celebrity – either real or virtual, some challenges are:
o Reach the right set of users who will value your tweets ; & sometimes this is the real challenge
o Follow the right set of users (& the fewer the better) from whom you can really benefit because what they share has some relevance in your current context – either personal or professional
o Be regular on your tweets to continuously engage with your follower base

Originally published @ http://nipmu.blogspot.com/2011/03/twitter-my-perspective.html