Social media getting people to meet in person

Tweetups give Twitterers an opportunity to meet in person

For those of you who think Twitter buffs are computer geeks glued to their computers, think again. I’ve never been invited to more parties since I’ve been active on Twitter. This is mainly due to a growing social media craze called tweetups.

If you have never heard of one, it’s simply a meeting of two or more people who know each other through Twitter. Tweetups are generally organized around a theme and are used as social mixers.

You may be surprised to hear that tweetups don’t just involve people standing around staring at their phones sending messages to each other. Many Twitter users have amassed a following of people with similar hobbies or professional pursuits. They have been sending each other short messages for a period of time, and a tweetup gives them a chance to turn those missives into discussions. It’s a way to put a voice and face to the like-minded people you tweet with.

At the Sun Sentinel, we have held tweetups as a way for our reporters, readers and sources to meet and talk about local issues. Most readers who attend are news junkies there to talk about current events. Some have splintered off to form smaller tweetups, and some have developed friendships through the events.

My colleague, Chris Tiedje, who organizes the Sun Sentinel tweetups, told me this is the first time he’s had a large group of friends who regularly get together since he relocated from Minneapolis five years ago. And it’s all thanks to Twitter.

Individual reporters like food writer John Tanasychuk recently held a pizza tweetup at Coal Mine Pizza in Boca Raton. More than 70 people showed up to eat pizza and talk about food.

“People were excited,” said Tanasychuk. “They wanted to know when we are going to do it again.”

Some larger tweetups are held by charity organizations, professionals and politicians.

When I hear people pining for the good old days when people “talked” to each other, instead of tweeting or e-mailing, I tell them you can have both, especially as the line between our online and real worlds begins to blur.

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Tips for organizing a tweetup

Send a few messages to your Twitter network asking for help or ideas on the theme and location and possibly ideas for speakers.

Once you’ve determined when and where you’ll hold the event, check out the space to make sure there is enough room, light, parking and cell phone reception.

Set it for a weeknight so you don’t infringe on people’s weekends.

Publicize it with tweets, e-mails and phone calls, and ask your twitter followers and friends to do the same.

Set up a hashtag that you and others who are attending can use. A hashtag is a # sign followed by a term (i.e. #SethTweetup) that allows people to read all the tweets on a subject at once.

On the day of the event, arrive early to set up. Greet people as they come in, hand out name tags and introduce people. Facilitate conversation. After the event, tell everyone to post their photos on a photo-sharing website such as flickr.com.

Social Media time-saving tips

Social media can save you time, if you use the right tools

People who resist social media websites usually tell me they don’t have time for it. They work all day in front of a computer and don’t want to spend their free time catching up with high school friends they haven’t seen in years.

They’re right: Social media can be a time drain, especially for people who are getting started. But it can also save time.

There are tools that keep you organized when you’re throwing a party or putting together an event. For instance, say you schedule a potluck on evite.com. As guests RSVP on the site, you can keep tabs of who’s attending and what they’re bringing, saving yourself countless phone calls and e-mails. Facebook has a similar tool called social calendar, which integrates things like movie listings, so friends can quickly make decisions on outings.

If you’re sick or about to have a medical procedure, social media tools can quickly put you in touch with people who have dealt with similar issues. You’ll want to consult your doctor for medical advice, but sites like surgery.about.com and ehealthforum.com allow you to join or start a discussion to learn from other people’s experiences and ask questions.

Or if you have enough friends in your social network, you can ask them. An example: My friend tore ligaments in her knee and noted on Facebook that she was nervous about getting surgery. Five of her friends who had the same surgery wrote and told her about their experiences, recommended doctors and gave her ideas on rehabilitation. A few commiserated and offered to help her out.

Whether you’re looking for a good jazz club or a good bird watching spot, social media can help save time. For example, birdpost.com brings birdwatchers together and lets them upload their findings to the group. All can instantly see what the other birdwatchers have spotted on a satellite map and send them messages.

If you’re looking for soul food, do a search on yelp.com and you’ll find the restaurants in your area, reviewed by people in your neighborhood. It’s much quicker than the Yellow Pages. Trying to buy a used item for cheap? Do a search on Craigslist and see if someone in your neighborhood is trying to sell that item instead of driving to and searching through thrift shops and flea markets.

The trick to being efficient with your time on social media is knowing your interests and having a goal. Even if your goal is to get in touch with friends you haven’t seen in 20 years, you’ll save a lot of time using social media tools to make that happen.

Social media etiquitte

Think of Twitter, Facebook as online parties

Why Facebook features a tool that allows you to poke people, I’ll never understand. Would you take your finger and jam it into someone’s shoulder in real life? So why would you ever consider poking someone in Facebook?

When friends and colleagues ask me questions about social media etiquette, my answer often is, “How would you treat this if you were talking to people face-to-face?”

Here are some of the questions I get:

Is it OK to use Twitter to promote yourself or your products?

An occasional plug is fine, and it’s good to mention what you do and things you are working on, especially if you are passionate about the subject matter. But don’t just talk about yourself and what you’ve done; it appears just as self-indulgent online as it does in person. Focus on helpful, witty or insightful tidbits that your target audience is interested in.

I generally use party analogies when discussing Twitter, because I think of it as a big party with thousands of simultaneous conversations. It’s great to talk to someone with lots of knowledge in a specific area, but no one wants to be stuck at a party with a shameless self-promoter.

Do I have to accept all these people who want to be my Facebook friends?

Facebook is more like your personal party, and you wouldn’t let in everyone who comes to your door, and you shouldn’t expect that of others. If you have something in common with a friend of a friend, you might ask them a couple of questions, have a conversation and then decide whether to invite them to be your friend. Also, if you send out a friend request, don’t worry if the person accepts or not. Not everybody makes it to your parties.

Popular social media sites such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter may eventually be replaced with new social media tools.

But social media is not going away, and here is the most important rule: Be nice, don’t post in anger. If someone posts something that comes off as mean, assume they had the best intentions. If it is obviously ill-willed, ignore it.

Everything you say on these networks is public. Some people are losing jobs or not getting them in the first place because of things they have posted on social networks. Don’t let that happen to you.

Oh yeah, and please do not poke me.

Here are some other social media dos and don’ts:

Twitter etiquette tips:

Don’t: have a private conversation in public, publicly thank people for following you or constantly ask people to re-tweet something for you.

Don’t send five tweets in a row; leave time between tweets so people can comment.

Do fill out your profile; let people know who you are; and listen to others and ask questions.

Facebook tips:

Don’t post embarrassing photos of people; you could cost someone his or her job.

Don’t repeatedly send game or group invites to people who don’t respond, and don’t forward chain letters.

Business associates may want to try a LinkedIn request instead of a Facebook request. Give a thumb’s up to a good post. Introduce people who you think should know each other.

social media changing our social behaviors

Web videos, photos draw global community closer

Special occasions like births and weddings once prompted a private phone call or a card from a friend. These days, newlyweds and newborns’ parents post photos and videos on Facebook and YouTube, where anyone in their network can comment.

Social media tools are changing the way we build relationships and communities.

You can get closer more quickly with acquaintances. You keep in touch more with family members and friends scattered across the globe. And if you’re shy, you might have an easier time growing relationships online.

For instance, when I posted a message about going to Boston last week, I got a wide range of suggestions from old friends, co-workers and acquaintances. I also found out that a couple of my friends were now living there, and I met up with them.

When I returned, two things happened. Colleagues asked me about the trip instead of the obligatory, “How are you?” launching us beyond the simple pleasantries into a real conversation. I was also able to continue conversations I started at a convention in Boston on Facebook. And some of those connections may develop into friendships.

Online social networking is especially helpful for those of us who are shy by nature. Quiet people’s words are as loud as anyone’s in a social network. When a conversation has already been started by someone posting a photo or news clip, it is then easier to continue.

Social media is a binding force at a time when the economy has become more global and families are spread across the world. My cousin lives in China, and with the help of social media, he keeps up to date with friends and family better than most of my cousins in the States. When I lived overseas 15 years ago, I sent hand-written letters. As you can imagine, I had little contact with anyone but my immediate family.

Not surprisingly, some corporations use social media to form stronger relationships with customers. Interestingly, some of those customers are forming relationships with each other. Sun Sentinel.com’s blogs, Facebook page and Twitter account have people who regularly comment discussing articles.

The downside? For me, it’s that I could take the time I spend on any given night conversing with many on one meaningful phone call. Or for that matter, on finishing my handwritten “thank you” cards for wedding gifts — something too personal to do via the Web.

Iran elections show the power of social media

Social media gives public power to shape the news

The power of social media became apparent to many this summer when the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to hold off on maintenance to its servers until after Iran’s presidential election protests.

Not only were the citizens of Iran using the medium to organize and report on what was happening in their country, but U.S. residents used social media sites to successfully lobby for increased news coverage of the protests.

People are directly shaping the news through social media tools. They’re reporting and distributing information, and traditional news outlets are paying attention.

For example, when a plane crashed into an Oakland Park home in April, Miami resident Eddie Mujica saw it and snapped a photo — with his phone — of a plume of smoke trailing the plane. He uploaded the photo to Twitter. SunSentinel.com producers linked to the picture, and reporters talked to Mujica and added his eye-witness account to the story.

On another occasion, Fort Lauderdale resident Adam Stafford sent a message through Twitter that the power had just gone off at the Fort Lauderdale airport. Our reporters verified the outage and posted a story online crediting Stafford for the tip.

At a time when communities have fewer journalists, social media is allowing everyday people to be their eyes and ears.

News organizations have started programs, such as CNN’s iReports, which encourages its website visitors to submit photos, video and stories — some of which are broadcast on-air and many others online. MSNBC, The New York Times and the Huffington Post all have their own citizen journalist sections. The Sun Sentinel takes submissions through e-mail at newstips@sun-sentinel.com.

Media relations executives, once paid the big bucks to keep an eye on the press, are now also monitoring what is said on social media sites. Corporations like AT&T and FPL are aware that unhappy customers now have a means of getting their message out to a wider audience. Many do damage control by contacting such customers directly to resolve problems.

There are some downsides to giving everyone a platform.

Individuals can make mistakes or be influenced by spin or perks more than institutions with established standards and ethical guidelines. For example, some of the more high-profile Miami Dolphins bloggers said they received free tickets and stadium tours.

There’s a chance that gifts can influence someone’s coverage, even if he or she doesn’t realize it. Social media can also breed false rumors. For instance, someone posted a CNN iReport incorrectly saying Apple executive Steve Jobs had a heart attack. That was not true, and Apple’s stock plunged that day.

Problems aside, social media can give ordinary people the power to improve the quality of their lives and, sometimes, even influence world events.

Looking for a job, try social media

How to use the Internet to land your next job

I can think of many reasons to use media sites, but none more compelling than to find your next job.

The first thing you’ll want to do is search for yourself on Google. Your prospective employers will probably do this, so make sure what shows up is appropriate.

You can control how you appear in Google by creating a personal profile at www.google.com/profiles. Put your professional blog, Facebook profile or LinkedIn account in your profile and they will appear at the top.

LinkedIn.com is the most important social networking tool for job seekers. Set up a free profile and make sure it is complete. Widen your network by searching your previous employment networks and using the LinkedIn tool for scanning e-mail accounts.

Ask colleagues for recommendations. If you know people whose work you like recommend them and maybe they’ll recommend you back. Use your status updates to ask job-specific questions. Join industry-related groups where you can start and contribute to discussions. Update your profile at least once a week to stay on the radar of your contacts.

A blog around your area of expertise is another great way to establish your online persona. You will have to consistently post to your blog, so make sure it’s on a subject you are passionate about. A blog that hasn’t been updated in months can work against you. Starting a blog is easy and free. Google, Word Press and Movable Type are all good places to begin.

If you don’t have a Twitter profile, create one. Focus your tweets on your area of interest. Build your network by following people in the business you want to work. They may tweet a job before posting it. On Facebook, you should fan the companies where you want to work.

Once your profiles are set up, it’s time to do some networking. Identify the companies and people you would like to work for and add them to your social networks. Start with LinkedIn, and then search on the other networking sites.

Be mindful that some people use social media tools like Facebook just for friendly relationships. But it is fine to friend and follow people you do not know. If they follow you back, don’t rush into asking them for a job, first get to know them by reading their status updates. Ask relevant questions, ease into questions about career advice. After some dialogue you can ask about job opportunities. Cultivate these relationships like you would a real-life relationship. If you go to a party and meet someone who you would like to work for, you wouldn’t immediately ask for a job, so don’t do that in these tools either.

Connecting through Social media

Social media: It’s about the 411 and a way to connect

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand…

Bob Dylan’s lyrics marked a dramatic generational shift and they ring true again with the newest digital divide: social media.

Dylan’s generation swapped information at cafés and protests, and spread their messages through pamphlets and the underground press. Today, we have Facebook and Twitter to exchange ideas, and blogs to build grassroots movements.

As easy as it is to network from the comfort of one’s home, only 5 percent of Americans use Twitter, according to a recent Harris poll. Less than half of adults have either a MySpace or Facebook page, with just 16 percent updating their page daily.

Some say they just don’t “get it.” Why would I care that hottie1955 is eating Cheerios for dinner? Where am I going to find the time to Twitter all these twits? How is it social to spend your day hunched over a computer?

Since Wah-Wah-Wah.com isn’t working, I’ll tackle these questions before addressing why social media technology is the best thing that has happened to the Internet since the search engine, and may be even more important.

Complaint #1: Why would I give a hoot about people’s menial, mundane tasks?

Choose who you follow and friend carefully. Drop people, or just block updates from them if they don’t fit with why you’re using social media. But give people a chance before getting too trigger-happy.

These technologies are in their infancy; people are figuring them out and need to be educated. Consider starting a conversation asking if people are annoyed when others comment on what they ate. Sure, you may upset some people, but if they’re offended, they can de-friend you.

My Facebook use has been focused on who I knew in the past, but I’m now focused on who I want to know in the future. You need to actively seek out people whose thoughts interest you to raise the level of your social media experience.

Complaint #2: I don’t have time for social networking.

These sites can be a time drain, but once you learn how to use them, they can save you time and money, and help foster valuable connections.

For instance, my wife recently was craving pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). I went to Yelp.com and found a list of restaurants, each with customer reviews. The social review site allowed us to read the reviewers’ biographies, e-mail them questions, see how many people agreed with the reviewers and even rate the reviewers’ reviews.

Not only was it quicker than the Yellow Pages, it provided more information. In addition, the site holds restaurants accountable to each customer, and even holds the reviewers accountable.

Yelp does more than help find good grub. Doctors, lawyers and even politicians can be rated.

Complaint #3: How is spending more time in front of my computer being social?

I generally prefer talking to people in person, but time is limited and schedules are difficult to organize. What’s more important is having those online conversations, many of which you just don’t get in a typical social setting. Also, many social networking tools lead to in-person meet-ups. There is even a word for twitter meetings: tweet-ups.

Also, there’s more to social networking than being social. There’s the professional networking part of it. Commenting on a mentor’s blog post can open a door to a discussion and lead to friendship or a working relationship.

There are other gripes and excuses I could write about, but here’s what makes social media so important to the functionality of the Internet: We have never had so much information at our fingertips. There is no way to dig through it all on our own, even with a search engine. Social media tools harness the power of people sifting through information to bring out the best.

Social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon are great examples. People select articles worthy of reading by voting for them. The higher the stories rank, the more likely they will be read. StumbleUpon learns what you like as you vote, and can take you to sites based on your interests. Like Yelp, the reviewers nominating stories have reviewed profiles. You can read their other recommendations, and if you find someone to your liking, you can friend them and send them messages.

On social networking sites like Facebook, friends recommend articles. This means the articles have been vetted, and are probably worth reading.

The more people who participate, the more filters and reviewers there will be and, ideally, the higher quality information will float to the top. With the best information, and the coming together of like-minded people, there will be collaboration and action.

I am hopeful and a little envious of the generation that is growing up with this technology. With better information, people will be able to hold corporations, politicians and other professionals accountable.

Some examples of powerful uses of social media include the election of our president, who deftly raised money and fought smear campaigns with social media tools. He now addresses the public on YouTube, where they can comment on and discuss his speeches.

Freedomspeaks.com is a nonpartisan political social network that allows its members to write letters to their publicly elected officials. You can go through issues, interact with members and elected officials, read their letters and add them as friends or foes.

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project aimed at creating “community-funded reporting.” Through Spot.Us, a journalist pitches a story directly to the public. The stories that garner enough donations are researched and written. In some cases, you can join a reporting team if you’re interested in working on the story.

Indeed, the times they are a-changin’.

Twitter in a nutshell — Part 2

Glossary of terms/tools

A “tweet” is a message sent from a Twitter user that is less than 140 characters. You can send your message from http://twitter.com/ or by sending a text message to 40404 from your text-message enabled phone, once it is set up. You can also send tweets from third-party web add-ons like Tweetdeck.com, TweetFunnel.com, etc.  or from a pda add-on like TwitterBerry.

message = From any Twitter-enabled application (including your mobile device) just type the message and press Enter or click Send. This is a public tweet to all of your followers.

@username + message = (Reply or @Reply or at reply) This is a public reply to a tweet from a specific person on Twitter (the person does not have to be following you). This is how conversations occur in Twitter. It can also be just a public message sent to a specific user.  Your message must start with the @username…not be embedded in the message.

D username + message = (DM or direct message) This is a private message to a specific person on Twitter who follows you. Notice the space after the d and no @ sign. If your mobile device is enabled, DMs are always sent to you… even if they are not turned on for the specific follower.

RT @originalusername: +original message = (Retweet) People appreciate retweets and it is a good way to get noticed by others. All you

do is put RT in front of the @username. Forwards a message to all those following you, thus passing on information to your tribe… word of mouth referral, but giving credit to the originator. This is the viral aspect of Twitter messages. Notice the space after the RT and before the @. Some add-on programs offer a retweet icon that automatically formats and copies the original message.

#tags = (Hashtags) are short words or acronyms preceded by a # thus providing a tag for the topic you are tweeting about. Allows others to search for twitter users who are chatting about the same things. Twitter hashtags are tracked at http://hashtags.org/ To have your hashtag tracked, follow @hashtags. Twemes and Summize also follow hashtags. You can search for them at http://search.twitter.com/ Find existing tags at hashtags.org or TwittGroups.com. Example: The message below is the same as the one above but it adds the hash marks to make it more searchable for others trying to find similar information.

m.twitter.com – That is the URL you will want to use on your smart phones.

TweetLater –Tweetlater at http://www.tweetlater.com allows you to schedule tweets for various times of the day.

Mr. Tweet at www.mrtweet.net is another way of gaining new followers. Follow Mr. Tweet on Twitter and your tweets will be monitored for

content and then you will get a Direct Message from “him”. You then go to the site and login and you will get a list of suggested people. You will also get a list of people who are following you that you aren’t following so you can then follow them if you choose. Whoshouldifollow.com is also a good site to find people

Tweetmeme — If you’re looking to do research on retweeting and link-sharing on Twitter, Tweetmeme provides retweeting stats for articles on Twitter. It’s best for recent events, but does have legacy. Twitturly and Retweetist also do similar things. Also be sure to try out Twist if you want to graph out Twitter trends.

WeFollow and Twellow –  Both directories of Twitter users. WeFollow uses hashtags to categorize people by industry or hobby. Twellow organizes categorically as well, but also has the TwellowHood tool for finding Twitter users by location. Muckrack.com track journalists on twitter another twitter journalist group is http://twittgroups.com/group/journalists

Twitter Grader: Learn your Twitter grade, your local Twitter Elite, and find new people to follow through Twitter Grader.

Tweetbeep: With Tweetbeep, you can set up alerts that will help you keep track of keywords on Twitter.

Retweetradar — To see trends on Twitter. There are lots of tools that do all of this i.e. Happn.in measures by city. Here’s an article about different ways to track trends.

Friend or Follow: Manage your Twitter contacts and find out who’s not following you back through Friend or Follow.

Things not to do on twitter

1. Don’t say “Good Morning,” “good night” … It’s OK to be a little personal, but generally make your tweets count
2. Don’t Re-Tweet a link without giving the person an @credit. Also, use common sense when retweeting. Don’t retweet unreliable sources
3. Don’t tell people what you are eating.
4. Don’t only send out headlines to your stories
5. Don’t be weird or cryptic, unless it’s witty.
6. Don’t have a conversations of @somebody’s. Go to a chat room or something.
7. Don’t machine gun tweet. Spread them out, you don’t want to look like a twitter feed
8. Don’t try to read everybody’s tweets, just make sure to check your direct messages and @replies. To weed out the people whose messages you really want to read, you will use tweetdeck, which I’ll talk about next week.
9. Don’t tell people you are going out of town for three weeks and the key is under the matt
10. Don’t tweet anything, even as a DM (direct message) that would embarrass you or get you fired
11. Don’t be discouraged if you’re new to Twitter and it doesn’t seem as if anyone is responding to you. Just keep tweeting, and following people. You will eventually gain followers and some of them will @reply to you

Twitter in a nutshell — Part 1

A Web/smart phone service that allows you to receive posts (”tweets”) from other Twitter users who you choose to “follow.” Other Twitter users can follow you if they want to read your posts. When you follow someone on Twitter, their tweets show up in reverse chronological order in a stream that scrolls down the Twitter home page when you’re logged in. Your twitter page looks like a constantly updating scroll what’s happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting.

Why would I want to do this?

Twitters biggest payoff is that it allows you to gather a personal posse who can support you in powerful, flexible, speedy ways. Also, if you are choosy about the people you follow, Twitter can be quite an effective radar screen for news or relevant issues. But there are many other potential benefits, especially for journalists. Twitter can help you engage people on a personal level, and to demonstrate your interest in them. Twitter also can help you spread the word about your efforts, driving traffic to online, broadcast, mobile, or print venues

Getting Started

1. Go to twitter.com and click on the green box that says get started on twitter.

1. Choose a username – keep it short characters count – Generally I suggest using your name.
2. Then configure your profile, do not “protect your updates” Fill out your profile. Put a picture in there. Enter your hometown. Enter a link to your Blog. Fill out the one line bio with what you do. Make it appealing and personal, this is how people will decide if they want to follow you. Get some keywords in here too, like your beat and the paper.
3. Under the “devices” tab, register your cell phone so you can tweet via text message if you want to. But for now, set “device updates” to “off” so you don’t receive text messages from Twitter.

2. Do some searches on Search.Twitter.com <http://search.twitter.com> for key words: your hometown, your publication, a big issue in your town or beat – whatever. See who’s talking about them. If there’s someone interesting, follow them. To “follow.” Just click the little “follow” box under the person’s profile. Read some of their posts. Get an idea of how they are using it. If there is someone who does something similar to you, you can follow their followers because most likely they are interested in the conversation you have to offer as well.

3. Post a Tweet or two by typing into the box that says “What are you doing”. Say you’re new to Twitter and are looking for some cool people to follow. Remember you only have 140 characters, but there is a running character counter so you can see where you are at. Do not go over or your tweet will cut off.

4. To post links, you’ll need to use a URL-shortening service. http://bit.ly is a good one, so is http://tr.im There are many

5. If someone sends you a message you can respond to them directly by typing “D” followed by a space and then their twitter name. Or you can respond to someone and let all your followers see your response by typing the @-key immediately followed by their username (i.e. to respond to a comment by me you would type in “@sliss33″ and then the response.)

6. Tell people you’re on Twitter. As you get used to this medium, post your Twitter ID on your personal blog, bio page on your employer’s site, with your byline, in your e-mail signature file, etc.

Twitter versus facebook

I’m having a lot of success getting SunSentinel.com journalists using Twitter to attain audience and converse with readers, but there’s less enthusiasm for using facebook in a similar vein. Mainly it’s because people have already set up their personal facebook pages and they don’t want to mix their personal lives with their professional lives.

Like my colleagues, I initially felt a bit squeamish about fusing work and personal life online. But as it turns out, many of my friends and family are interested in my work-related posts. It also gave me a reason to post more often, which has opened up more opportunity for conversations with them. Conversely, some professional associates are interested in my personal posts and random thoughts.

Reporters who are concerned with certain colleagues or sources viewing their personal information can adjust their privacy settings so certain people are blocked from seeing some parts of their facebook pages such as comments or photos. (Sun Sentinel Reporter Andrew Tran has a great how-to video on this subject.)