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Find Twitter Followers and Build An Audience With These Helpful Applications

by Jess Sloss on July 2, 2009

I get asked two questions more than any other. “How tall are you?” and “How do I get followers on Twitter”

Weird, eh?

The answers? 6′7″ and read this Mashable post by Josh Catone: 10 Ways to Find Followers on Twitter

How to Find Followers

Here are the services linked to in the Mashable Post, for your quick reference. Check out the original for way more info on each service and why it made the list.

1. Twitter People Search – Twitter’s built in people search isn’t the greatest way to find people on Twitter, but it’s probably where you should start.

2. Tweepz – Because the biographical information Twitter collects is minimal, no Twitter people search engine can improve on Twitter’s that much. Third-party site Tweepz does an admirable job, though.

3. TweepSearch – TweepSearch lets you search by Twitter name or location, or search a specific username to get a list of all friends and followers.

4. TwitDir – TwitDir is another search engine, but if the crawling stats are accurate, it’s well behind the curve, searching about 3 million fewer users than Tweepz.

5. Twellow – Your best bet for finding like-minded Twitter users might be to use a directory, and Twellow is certainly one of the most complete.

6. WeFollow – Created by Digg (Digg) founder Kevin Rose, WeFollow is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags.

7. Just Tweet It – Just Tweet It is another user created Twitter directory.

8. Twubble – Twubble recommends people to follow by spidering the people you’re already following and recommending users that they’re following.

9. Twitterel – Twitterel attempts to find people you might be interested in following by doing keyword searches of tweets.

10. Who Should i Follow? – Enter you Twitter username into Who Should i Follow? and the service finds users who are similar to those you’re already following.

above via Social Media Blog: Mashable

Two Things to Think About Before Building Your Following

1) Quality of Followers

Added to the list above are countless services offering too build hundreds if not thousands of followers for you instantly. Sounds great, if you don’t care who you follow (spammers love these tools) or who follows you. Yes, having a large follower count is a benefit, but having a targeted large follower count is WAY better. The helpful twitter applications Mashable lists above should allow you to search keywords or categories to find the relevant Twitter users to your business. It’s better to have 100 True fans than 1000 who don’t care about you in the slightest.

Once you’ve found users that might be interested in what you have to say, follow them. They might just follow you back.

2) Friend/Follow Ratio

We all get excited, but seriously, Slow Down. Building a true following takes time. Yes, the tools above can help you find people to follow, but how many should you follow at once? and Does it matter if you’re following way more than follow you?

My take on the follower/friend ration question, especially when building an audience is to take it slow. A sizable discrepancy between users you follow and those that follow you back screams lame. It shows potentially new followers that you are not worth being followed, as voted by the numerous people that you followed and never followed you back.

Take it slow, build your presence a little bit everyday.

I would love to know your thoughts on these services, leave a comment, subscribe or check out some of the great related posts below. Thanks!

Photo Cred: Thomas Hawk

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3 Tips for Buying Social Media Attention

by Jess Sloss on June 26, 2009

How Movieset.com bought my attention and 3 Tips to Help you do it too.

Have a look in the sidebar, do you see that beautiful odd looking human being they call Bubbles? (not that handsome picture of me top right, scan down a little!) Weird right? It’s part of an outreach campaign by Vancouver Based Movieset.com aptly titled “Trailer Park Boys Secret Bribe Program”( shhhhh )

While I’m more used to being the out-reach-er, than the out-reach-ie, I have to give kudos to the Movieset.com team for their tact in what essentially is a pay for our attention plan.

The long and short of it is this, they will give me $50, as long as I plop that banner you see in the side bar and send out a tweet.

There’s more too it though. Here’s how they outlined the offer:

The MovieSet gang lifted 4 bags full of Trailer Park Boys DVDs but we can’t hold onto the stash so are giving the booty away with a sweepstakes. We gotta let all of Sunnyvale know about the goods so we’re offering you a bribe to spread the rumors.

Whatcha get:

1. Bottle of Ray’s liquor – $20

2. Bag of Nova Scotia’s finest – $20

3. Kitty – free + $10 for shots

Then comes the money shot:

We’ve done enough law breaking to know we can’t just mail all this contraband so instead we’ll send you a cheque for $50. You gotta be in USA or Canada to get the payola and be invited by MovieSet.com specifically. No hanger-ons and groupies.

3 Reasons Movieset.com Bought my Attention

1. Money isn’t the value proposition

If the email subject said “Post this link and We’ll Give you $50″ I might not even have clicked it. Offering money would risk making me feel cheap. Instead they played of my enjoyment of free kitties, liqour and contraband to peak my interest. When they finally drop the “We’ll Send you Money” line, I’m interested in the story more than the money.

2. The story is more than the sum of it’s parts.

The story provided me an angle, made $50 way more interesting and justified inclusion in a post such as this. Their strategy is represented by this equation: Obvious Angle + A Story Worth Talking About = Blog Posts

3. Humor goes a long way

There’s no hiding the end goal here, banners and links and traffic from more sites around the web, and movieset isn’t shy about it. The Secret Bribe Contest . That blatant and cheeky attitude, along with the underlying honesty it showcased removed any fears that I may have had around posting a banner and warrented me telling you about it. Humor brought me in and built some trust.

So how can you increase your chances of buying attention? Check it:

Tips for Buying Social Media Attention aka. Social Media Outreach

1) Tell a story
Even better, make a story obvious to a blogger by appealing to their niche and content type. ( I wrote about this from a social media angle, others may write as fans or haters of the show or real life trailerpark residents themselves, there are a variety of possibilities)

2) Answer the “Why?” Question
Offer value, whether that’s inside info, a prize or a away of being closer to your brand or product, trading value for attention is essential, it gives a blogger or visitor a reason to pay attention or take an action. The lesson from Movieset is that money is not the only, or even the best way, to offer value.

3) Be real
I “know” people behind movieset because I follow them online ( and some I know in real person too ). So previous social media interaction is a plus. Show bloggers you are a real person, share ways for the them to find out who you ( the out-reach-er) are. This is easily done by linking to your twitter account or blog.

So there you have it, a few simple ideas to make your social media outreach a little more successful. Now check out that contest for your chance to win some DVD’s! As a side note, I’ll be donating that beer money to a valuable cause, my volunteers helping me move next week. Thanks Movieset

Photo Cred: Principessa [Michelangelo]

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A Dirty Video – Raising Awareness for Ocean Pollution

by Jess Sloss on May 27, 2009

We get some pretty cool opportunities at Giant Ant Media, and I’m stoked to talk about this one! The latest has been to work with Changents.com and Timberland’s Earth Keeper Heroes Campaign to raise awareness around Christopher Swain, a man swimming over 1000 miles down the Atlantic Coast to bring attention to our polluted waterways, a worthy cause.

Yesterday we launched the video and micro site, DirtyforSwain.com and were lucky enough to get a great post on Treehugger (which will hopefully be followed by a others blog posts as the weeks go on)

The idea is that through using social networks and online video, we can raise awareness across many different blogs and social networking platforms all for a great cause while offering value for the projects sponsor, Timberland. Time will tell how well the campaign does and invite you to check it out, tweet about and leave your feedback here or anywhere for that matter. Check out DirtyforSwain.com

Dirty for Swain

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Answers to 7 Questions Brands Are Asking About Twitter

by Jess Sloss on May 12, 2009

If big brands are asking these questions, chances are so are you. Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist at Forrester Research has posted a short list on his blog titled, 7 Questions Some Brands Are Asking About Twitter. While I question his ability to count (there are closer to 10 questions in his list…) I thought it would be valuable to answer questions based on my experience working with clients at Giant Ant Media, on Twitter and Social Media Strategy. Here it goes.

7 Questions Some Brands are Asking About Twitter

1) Should we create multiple accounts for different divisions? How should we name them? How should the content be different?

While this will vary wildly from company to company based on organization structure and product offering I do have a few thoughts. First, I think the biggest opportunity for companies to leverage twitter is found with their employees. Employees represent the first line of fans or advocates of a brand, they’re real people with real connections and are (hopefully) able to have real person to person interactions.

Tony Hsieh and team at Zappos is the perfect example. The majority of Zappos employees are on Twitter and the vast majority of tweets they send don’t revolve around shoes or the Zappos brand. Have a look at what they’re tweeting about now.

So how does Zappos see value? They get access to a valuable friend to friend relationship. Sure it’s not accessible by corporate communications on a whim, as it shouldn’t be. Zappos employees will tweet about company info, events or products when it makes sense to them, making those interaction vastly more valuable than any scripted or controlled message.

Focus on empowering people to be active online.

2) Is it ok to just tweet out news on our main corporate account? Or should we be conversational?

Yes!

3) How do we get our corporate reps (sales, product teams) to use this tool, and be conversational?

Great idea! My suggestion is to set them up with personal accounts and encourage them to connect and interact with each other as ‘people’ first and sales or reps second. People (who just may be potential clients) don’t want to connect with companies or sales reps, they want to connect with people and that’s exactly the benefit Twitter offers both companies and users.

Beyond encouraging employees to set up accounts, training and coaching programs can be a great way to further the use of the medium and ensure that users see value for their investment of time. Coaching programs usually include a focus on how to interact, how to grow a following and provide an encouraging and connecting force to really ramp up the value of their Twitter usage.

4) Should we follow folks? If so, what’s the protocol? Should we only follow folks that follow us? We don’t want to appear like ‘big brother’

One thing companies need to get their head around is that people want to connect online, as long as they see value. Seth Godin put it best when he described Twitter as One Big Cocktail Party. By following someone you are essentially shaking their hand and saying hello. That person then has the option of following you back, or not.

I recommend actively searching for people that are interested in similar things as you. If you’re a wine retailer, search “wine” or “best Chardonnay” or “Zinfandel” on search.twitter.com and follow people that are talking about those terms. Even better, search for and answer their questions, provide encouragement or offer them value some other way (like special deals!). Just don’t go out and follow hundreds or thousands of people right off the bat, you’ll look like a spammer (and essentially are) so don’t.

Focus on offering value to your followers and watch those relationships grow.

5) What are the tools to use to manage multiple authors/tweeters?

I recommend using HootSuite for multiple authors/editors. Hootsuite provides other great features such as scheduled tweets, built in metrics and a rich search feature. One drawback is that the current URL shortening service, ow.ly, uses an Digg Bar-esque iFrame tool bar that slows page load times and may annoy some users. I have, however, been told by it’s developer (Invoke) that an option to remove the tool bar will be coming soon. Here’s to hoping!

Another tool I like to use is Tweetdeck. Though it doesn’t allow for multiple authors, it does have a multiple columns structure that can be used to provide a Heads Up Display of sorts. You can run near-real time searches on multiple key words and trends, making it valuable for users to keep their finger on the pulse of a given conversation.

6) How can we find other examples of B2B twitter examples?

You can find good lists here , here and here.

7) How should we brand our Twitter backgrounds images?

The most valuable real estate on your twitter profile is you 160 character bio, user name and a link to more info about you or your company. Beyond that, you have the option of uploading a background image to be displayed behind your update feed. The Twitter background is a great branding opportunity. Check out what Tree Hugger, a leading environmental website has done with theirs. Zappos Tony uses it to show his face and provide viewers with other ways to connect with the company. I just use it to show off my manly features.

Rule of thumb: When in doubt, keep it simple. Simple!

So there we go, some answers to Twitter questions that you may or may not have know you had. Did I miss someting? Get somethign something wrong? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

or hit me up on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/thattallguy

Update: Check out Antonio’s answers: B2B Twitter and Sampad’s Indian Perspective on them

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I’m Proud of My Sister!

by Jess Sloss on May 11, 2009

What’s Bald, has a beautiful smile and raised over $4000 for BC Children’s Hospital? My Sister Leila of course!

Leila, motivated by the passing of our then 13 year old cousin from Cancer over 4 years ago, decided to shave her head for the BC Children’s Hospital Balding for Dollars program. Money raised goes to support families fighting Caner and Blood Disorders.

The Social Media Effect

Leila brought up the idea with me and we decided to try to leverage Social Media to build awareness around her plan. Over the course of a week, with the help of Giant Ant Media’s Jay Grandin and Leah Nelson, we filmed a few videos with Leila and BC Children’s Hospital Parent/Patient Advocate Dan Mornar. I built a quick blog ( www.LeilaSloss.com ), set her up on Twitter ( @leila_s ) and taught her the basics of blogging, tweeting and sharing online. She’s a natural.

Bringing in the Money

As I write this, her videos have nearly 8,000 views, her blog has been visited by nearly 2000 people and Leila, with the support of friends, family and strangers, has raised over $4000 (well exceeding her goal of $1000 when she started)

Her impact is was felt beyond raising money. Comments from other women who have lost their hair, both from similar fundraisers and Chemotherapy, were overwhelmingly positive. Friends tweeted, shared, linked and spread awareness of Balding for Dollars and the great work that Children’s Hospital does for those in need.

Thank You

I want to thank Leila for her brave decision to make a difference, and for allowing me to help in some small way. Thank you to Jay and Leah at Giant Ant Media for their creative video making skills that got Leila a bunch of attention on YouTube. Thanks to Derek from Ottawa for supporting the cause with a fun countdown widget created out of the blue, without us even asking. Finally, thanks to all of you who sent kind words, a donation or shared the link with a friend.

We’re in an era where all of us have unprecedented access to media and the public, Leila’s fund raising drive shows the impact that one person with a goal, the support of a small network of friends and the desire to make a difference can have.

Thank you!

Check out her Videos or Bald Photos

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Upcoming Social Media + Twitter Small Business Seminars

by Jess Sloss on May 4, 2009

I’ve got two exciting announcements for anyone looking to learn more about social media and how it relates to their small business. I’ve been lucky to be involved in the learning process with many Small Businesses Owners as part of Small Business BC’s learn Social Media Seminars. Here’s two dates to keep in mind:

Getting Started with Twitter

Date: May 6, 2009
Time: 12:00 pm PST to 1:00 pm PST
–>Price: Free <—
Come to this introductory session to learn how Twitter can help you network and build value online for your business. This seminar will show you how to bring together a community interested in sharing business and knowledge and answer questions like is Twitter relevant to my business and how much energy do I need to dedicate to this tool? Brainstorm with other small business owners on how to engage a network of twitter followers and determine if Twitter is right for you and your business.

Social Media: What’s in it for you and your small business?

Date: May 21, 2009
Time: 10:00 am PST to 12:00 pm PST
Price: $25.00 per person + tax

This workshop focuses on understanding social media, what is it and how it’s connecting people. A focus will be given to understanding what opportunities exist for small business owners to leverage social media for business growth and prospecting. Topics covered include privacy and control; social media pit falls and super stars and first steps to social media success. Some tools discussed will be Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, and creating social bookmarks.

Registration

Both seminars, even the free one, require that you register online here. If you have any questions on what we’ll cover please contact me via my about page.

My goal is to make these Small Business BC seminars relevant to participants, if you have friends, co-workers or bosses who don’t get this “social media thing” this a great opportunity for them to get in the know!

Photo Cred: Documentally

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