Twitter ~ Quantity vs. Quality

What's more important: quantity or quality of twitter followers? I think Mike Ellsworth explains this answer right one the spot.

 According to Mike, "Twitter is a bit of a numbers game. More followers is often better if you want to get your message out. But in reality, you want your message to go to those ready to receive it. So quality is important. A large number of quality followers is the best possible outcome. You really don't even need more than a few hundred followers if they a) pay attention b) have large followings and c) will ReTweet you. In fact I have two followers who each have networks greater than 20,000 followers. And they'll retweet everything I send them”.

Tweet you later (@MikeEllsworth) 

I only choose brands and people I am interested in knowing their day to day activities and announcements.  My top five professional "tweeps" are the following: 

@ONELessMin

@EndSlaveryTN

@Lifept

@invisible

@smcorco

Most of these the organizations twitter accounts but I follow their leaders closely as well. These are the tweeps that I always want to know what they're saying because I'm invested in their organizations. 

Since learning more about twitter and how to use it effectively, I've gained about 50 followers. I would say out of those 50 I am actively engaging in conversations with 20 of them on a bi-weekly basis.

Twitter

Urban Dictionary has many definitions twitter. Here are two I thought to explain twitter in less and 140 characters:

-The facebook "status" bar...without the rest of facebook.
-A social networking site that's perfect for stalking people with ease.

Twitter is a way to see what people are doing and saying without going through your facbook wall. Most people use twitter to follow their close friends, favorite celebrities, and favorite brands or organizations. It's fun to always have something new to look at and read on twitter.

Social Media Academic Research

I recently found two published academic research articles relevant to social media and organizational communication and I wanted to share them with you all!
The first article I found is titled Serious social media: On the use of social media for improving students' adjustment to college. By: David C. DeAndrea, Nicole B. Ellison, Robert LaRose, Charles Steinfield, and Andrew Fiore.
This study reports on a "student-centered social media site designed to enhance students' perceptions of social support prior to their arrival on campus. Results indicated that site usage increased students' perceptions that they would have a diverse social support network during their first semester at college, even when controlling for other potent predictors". This article shows that social media networks do influence people and in this case the diversity in their community.


The second article I found was How sociable? An exploratory study of university brand visibility in social media. By: E. Botha, M. Farshid, and L. Pitt.
This study describes "a tool for collecting brand visibility information by looking at the visibility of various South African university brands and their relative positioning from a social media perspective". They found that the university and the brands "both have opportunities for those who manage these brands, and also threats to these institutions for taking a laissez fair attitude to social media in these times when social media are coming to dominate the Internet in particular and media in general". Social media is also used to see how much people are seeing certain brands. This study focused on one university but this study can be done across many universities.

Effective engagement and networking skills

Check out these resources to help obtain effective social media engagement skills:

 

Designing SM Engagement

Developing SM Engagement Strategy

Need help with your networking skills? Check out this link.

"Listen"

So, what does it mean to "listen" as a social media professional? 


The Search Engine People made up a acronym for LISTEN in reference to social media. 

Listen 

Identify 

Solve

Test

Engage

Nurture your Fan Base

All of these aspects are extremely important when listening to others as a social media professional.



We can improve our listening by engaging with others by listening to others and then engage in conversations with those people.

"Engagement"

What is "engagement" in social media?
In my opinion engagement in social media is when a person is actively involved in social media on a day-to-day basis. Social media is used so much in society to stay connected to friends and family as well as brands and world events. Engaging in social media is very different from the typical interpersonal communication. Social media forces us to get involved with others and businesses on a daily basis via the internet instead of face-to-face communication. In my opinion social media forces us to be more involved with the world around us.

Garin gives thirty ways to Spark Social Media Engagement.
He gives tips for Twitter, YouTube, Google +, and Facebook.

Some of the most important practices I think Garin suggest to engage in social media are the following:

1. Start a hashtag on twitter. If it goes viral this will help you get more followers.
2. Time your tweets. There are certain times of the day people get on twitter. Try to tweet when people are online the most. Do your research to see the most popular times of the day for twitter. 
3. On YouTube ask people to engage at the end of your video. Wrap up your video with a call to action. 
4. Upload pictures on Google+
5. Leave comments on Google+
6. Use Facebook question tools
7. Tag others in your updates on Facebook

How to Maintain a Facebook Fan Page!

 Check out these links for more information on how to maintain a successful facebook fan page!

http://www.openforum.com/articles/social-media-for-business-2012-how-to-maintain-a-stellar-facebook-fan-page

http://www.facebook.com/help?page=168617716530627

http://www.facebook.com/events/324158702041/ 

http://www.blogher.com/how-create-maintain-facebook-fan-page

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/243138/how_to_promote_and_maintain_your_facebook_business_page.html

People to follow

Check out these people on twitter and follow them!

Professionals in my field of study
@BKWaring
@timwpatterson
@juanitokey
@ambsparagus
@davidmccaman
@jasonrussell
@lifepointsending
@dustindozier
@svandyke39
@DaleBraswell


Non- MTSU Students in my field of study
@AshleyFricks
@TheThaneMan
@Staciashew10
@justinmorton
@TiffanyHolland
@bobbybailey
@brandontomlin
@kyletanner
@jaredshingleton
@scottiemills


ORCO Professionals
@bwkaminh
I'm still working on building this section... I need to find more ORCO professionals! If you're reading this and you're one, let me know and I'll follow you!


Social Media Blogs
@socialmediablog
@PR_Couture
@socialmediaclub
@TNWsocialmedia
@socialmedia2day
@socialmediaweek
@ABCDsocialmedia
@mashable
@socialmediajobs
@socialguide

Local entrepreneurs
@lifept
@funtrepreneur
@theIDEAPot
@BCUEntrepreneur 


MTSU Organizations
@MTSUnews
@mtsualert
@mtsu_
@MTathletics
@MTCareerCenter
@MTSUGOLF
@MTSUGreeks
@MTAlumni
@MTSUsidelines
@MTSU

Facebook page vs. group for ORCO

Facebook pages and groups have many different pros and cons that should be look at when trying to decide to start a Facebook page or group.

Facebook groups: can be set to open it to a particular network (such as a university), more for personal interaction among members, extension of your personal actions, as long as it's under 5,000 members the administrators can send out messages to the group, more control over the group (like a private club), create events, great for personal level for similar interaction around a cause.

Facebook pages: mostly used to connect with brands, famous people, businesses, the ability to have friends, can add pictures, have walls so fans can post on it, doesn't list the names of the admins, send updates to fans through the page wall, can restrict page to certain ages and locations, can create events, great for businesses who want to interact with fans or customers without using a personal account.

There are also certain guidelines that must be followed when using a page or a group.


 For instance, everyone can join a page but certain people can choose to join the group or not, depending on the level of interaction they want with other ORCO people. 

Our Social Media Group thinks ORCO should start a facebook fan page and a group since both have great pros!


http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/

Starbucks Coffee and Facebook

     In my opinion, Starbucks is one organization that does a great job at using Facebook in an exemplary and successful professional manner to get their brand out there!
     Starbucks in number six on fanpagelist.com's list of top brands on Facebook. 
     Starbucks Coffee has 29,207,842 likes on on their facebook page and 2,232,668 followers on twitter!
     Everyday I see some sort of tweet from Starbucks coffee promoting a new drink, showing an awesome pic from instagram, or a tweet just to say have a great day! I have never seen a status update on their facebook page that has been negative or "unprofessional". They are always encouraging and insightful!
     Being as I am addicted to coffee, I love to be in the know of what's going on in the Starbucks world! They are a great example of a company who is taking advantage of social networking sites to get their brand and name out there!


Like Starbucks facebook page here and follow them on twitter here!

Zuckerberg's "The Social Graph"

Have you been wondering what Mark Zuckerberg's "the social graph" is all about? If so, take a look at Dan Farbers article "Facebook's Zuckerberg uncorks the social graph" on DZ Net.com. 

Farber explains that Facebook is doubling in size every six months and has over 100,000 users per day! 

Zuckerberg attributed the power of Facebook to the “social graph, ” the network of connections and relationships between people on the service. He said, “It’s the reason Facebook works.” says Dan Farber from ZD Net.  

Zuckerberg explains that “As Facebook adds more and more people with more and more connections it continues growing and becomes more useful at a faster rate. We are going to use it spread information through the social graph.” The net effect of the social graph is that groups and application can achieve exponential growth, says Zuckerberg. 

By creating this "social graph" facebook has opened up endless ways for people to organize and do business. As Farber explained with a controlled environment like Facebook one can leverage the huge network of people and allows for targeted innovation. 

People and businesses are now using facebook to reach their target audiences. For example, when Starbucks makes a status update it shows up in my newsfeed. Using facebook as a networking tool to get your company's name out there is not only smart but efficient. People spend a large part of there day surfing social networking sites and the more company's go to where the people are the more people will see the company's stuff!

      

FACEBOOK

            In the past I used facebook for personal things only. I used it to connect with friends I had not seen in a long time or friends I had met abroad. I travel a lot and facebook was a great way to keep in touch with people when I returned home. It was a great tool for just that.

            However, within the past year I have used it a lot more for work. I currently work at LifePoint Church as their Sending (missions) intern. I use my facebook to get information out there about upcoming trips people can sign up for. Being the sending intern I am leading our student internship process. We are sending nine college students to Bangkok, Thailand and three college students to Sao Paulo, Brazil this summer. I now use facebook as the main form of communication with those twelve interns. Since they are all on facebook already, it has worked great to get information to them quickly.

            Being the sending intern I also manage the LifePoint Sending facebook page. I update this on a weekly basis with information about sending and how to pray for people and how to get involved locally and globally. I think facebook is a great source of social media to help me accomplish the things I need to at this time in my life.

ORCO Communication Professionals

Today there are many organizational communication professionals that use social media to spread awareness of their company, programs and stories.

LifePoint Church, whom I work for, is one example of organizational professionals who take advantage of social media. The social media outlet LifePoint uses the most, other than their website, is twitter. If there are any events or news to get out to the church they tweet about it. Since twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking sites this works great for them!

Another non-profit that I think does a great job at using social media to get the word out about their ministry. ONE less ministries missions is: One less orphan, one less victim of human trafficking, one less victim of sexual exploitation, and one less victim of poverty. The social media outlet ONE less uses the most is their facebook page. Courtney Bartemus, the founder of ONE less, is great at keeping their facebook page up to date on things going on in their organization.

Brittany and Witt Kaminh use blogger to share their life story while living in Bangkok, Thailand. Blogger is another social media site people use to get word out about their work. On their blog they write about their everyday lives in BKK. They are missionaries that work for the LifePoint Bangkok campus.

I plan to follow what ONE less ministries and the Kaminhs are doing through their social media networks. I absolutely love that our world is so connected through social media these days.