Tag Archives: twitter

Do every business need Twitter?

Do every business need Twitter?

Do you have a Twitter account? If no, why not?

I’ve heard from some people who are not getting the hang of Twitter. They say, “Twitter is not for everybody.” Yes? I don’t think so… Let me paraphrase the quote: Twitter is not for every business. Maybe, but WHY NOT?

Before announcing ‘Twitter is not for my business’, let’s list down the most obvious similarity and differences between blogging and micro blogging then analyze further whether you could apply Twitter, as you do with blogging, in your business strategy.

Similarities:

  • Publish contents, images, videos, audio clips and links
  • Visit other people’s blog/Twitter to see what they are talking about
  • Leave comments
  • Link the other people’s post you like in your account
  • Keep track of visitor using statistics
  • Integration of various applications
  • Easy to setup account with friendly user interface

Differences:

  • Blog platform allows you to create lengthy contents while Twitter allows you to post 140-character messages.
  • Blog enables you create a URL for the published post whereas you have to go to the Twitter URL and scroll down the page to see all the Tweets.
  • Applications are integrated into  the blog page once you login to your blog whereas in Twitter, you have to visit various websites that provide services to Twitter, log in at the servicing websites before syncing with your Twitter account.
  • Blog is a website whereas Twitter is a platform. Get it?
  • Twitter is mobile phone friendly whereas blogs (mostly) are still best used with computers.

Wonder what people use Twitter for and why they are so famous?

Now, let us look at the Top 20 GLOBAL Twitter (celebrities & famous TV personalities). ‘Listen’ to what they are talking about and absorb the conversation.

  • #2. Ellen DeGeneres – TheEllenShow (Giveaways, thoughts, interesting person, high-rated tv appearance)
  • #3. Britney Spears – britneyspears (Scandals, paparazzi, trend-setting music, tv appearance, unique character)
  • #5. Kim Kardashian – KimKardashian (Reality tv show, updates about her whereabouts + links to other celebs + updates about her life, thoughts)
  • #7. Ryan Seacrest – RyanSeacrest (Who doesn’t know this man? American Idol!, radio show, updates about celebs, gossip, thought provoking, tweet every day)
  • #8. John Mayer – johncmayer (At least 5 tweets per day for the past week, x-bf of Jennifer Aniston, highly interactive)
  • #9. Shaq O’Neill – THE_REAL_SHAQ (Legendary basketball player, at least 4 tweets per day, interacts with Twitter friends)
  • #11. Oprah Winfrey – Oprah (Famous for her talk show, influential)
  • #12. Demi Moore – mrskutcher (Famous for the marriage status, I am still intrigued about their family relationship!)
  • #14. Miley Cyrus – mileycyrus (Teen celebrity, movie, Hannah Montana)
  • #15. Puff Daddy – iamdiddy (Influential, tv appearance, reality tv show)
  • #16. Lance Armstrong – lancearmstrong
  • #17. Ashley Tisdale – ashleytisdale
  • #18. Coldplay – coldplay (A well known music band)
  • #20. Mariah Carey – MariahCarey

(Stats shown above are as at October 14, 2009 by TwitterCounter.com.)

Read some useful facts about Twitter here and it is also one of the reason why you should consider using Twitter for your business.

A quickpress from office desktop – Further to my Twitter findings

A quickpress from office desktop – Further to my Twitter findings

OMG! I’m totally ADDICTED to Twitter! Can’t take my mind off it! The syndrome: As soon as I reach the office or home, I’ll log into my MSN, Hotmail and Twitter accounts first. I will check whether I have any @reply to my @sharifahsharoms account on Twitter. I’ll read what others Tweet about. I may reply to some out of sarcasm or pleasure. I’ll log an entry or two about my thoughts and feel happy about it.

As you know I like to skim thru passages for key words and phrases when I read, that’s how Twitter really works for me. Twitter’s 140-characters feature forces us to omit non-essential linking verbs and points your attention direct at the key words. That’s the point, isn’t it? EFFECTIVE is the word to describe this new technology, Twitter.

Oh! Oh! Long URL? Complementary to Twitter’s 140-characters: Shorten it at bit.ly! Cheer up!

Meet the people in the office I’d like to sucker punch in the face

Meet the people in the office I’d like to sucker punch in the face

More often when you meet people on a daily basis, you tend to establish some form of love-hate relationship with them. The love-hate relationship is built upon interchanging information through work or when socializing during break time. Here are five bizarre types of people I’d love to punch them hard in the face when I get a chance.

(1) Superficial Social Network Newbies: One who appears to be totally swept off by the fad. Opened multiple accounts just to mention a few: Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, etc… so as not to feel left out. Completely mondo stoked and thrived online day and night searching for common people from his network and extended networks. Added them to his friends list. Grew the networks to gain target audiences. Writes message with no personal touch and publishes info that lack Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (AIDA). Nobody really cares. He thinks that’s just business. Little did this type know that such mentality qualifies for the Marketing Spam community.

(2) Selfish Bastards: A free-spirited lazy fella who lives by the day and applied the same policy at work.  Superb at delegating work to others. Doesn’t care how the work will be done as long as it gets done. Doesn’t bother to act with sense of urgency and always delegates work at the very last minute. Deserves a wall plaque statement for making others doing the work look bad because they can’t meet these Selfish Bastards’ unrealistic dateline. Could be a bug when in the state of panic. Wouldn’t care less sparing a thought to others.

(3) Socks Face: A typical introvert who has a talent in keeping updated logs of people’s personal affairs. This one can be regularly seen anywhere near a group of gossip-mongers. Spies on anybody  particularly those independent of the standard office culture. Has a flair in asking rhetorical questions and annoying people. Already honed a championship medal for best tricks up the sleeves at dumb-pretense and eavesdropping. Grew deep roots at their comfort zone but never interested at own job scope. The more you shy away from them, the more they are attracted to you like bees to honey. You wish this type would stay at home and rot in a hole.

(4) Conflicted Diva: One who makes myths believable. Very narrow-minded and is always having difficulties accepting themselves. Often, their perceptions are blinded with envy of others who appear to be better off them on the surface. From a third person’s view, seems like people sympathize Conflicted Diva but indiscreetly scrutinized this type of their inability to accept reality. It would be nice to chat along and hear this type mutters sarcastic remarks but only at themselves.

(5) Syndicate Hoe : One who often mix work with personal interest and their projects often involve a weakling with a heart of gold as a ‘runner’ for their syndication. Very persistent at getting their syndicate activities done during office hours even though the weakling is very tied up. Their persistence is comparable to callus layering the surface of their skin — never shy to ask favors one too many a time.

These characters are merely musings of my own. No pun intended.

I signed up my life on Twitter

I signed up my life on Twitter

I just created a Twitter account! http://twitter.com/sharifahsharoms

A significant somebody once told me,”Don’t send me your Twitter link! I don’t want to follow-up!”

The question is: What is so good about Twitter? I was a skeptic of Twitter before. I thought what’s the big deal about it? It’s just like having a personal messenger that echoes my thoughts and publish them to cyberspace. Out of curiosity and experimental purpose, I signed up for an account following my company’s direction to be part of the trend. I’m already thinking of updating things like, “It’s 3 a.m. and my cat jumped into my bedroom window,” and “I just came back from work – furious – cat peed onto my bed. Any idea to remove pee smell?”. These are the norm happenings at home — might be musing to others — who knows?

Would I care who follow my tweets? I don’t. People probably think I don’t have a ‘real’ life. I do, in fact often bond with  close friends and family members. My cyber lifestyle are mostly experimental. However I enjoy Facebook a lot because the applications that are integrated within it are updated in real time which make it appear interactive among friends and family who are online.

What I love about Twitter? The feeling is just like a comeback to the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) days — log into a chat room, scroll down the threads posted by other users,  reply to some, then see it getting replied and make anonymous friends. Those who were IRC addicts (like me) then will agree with me on this. The only difference is I get to create and personalize my own account and update what I am doing presently in 140-words. Short and sweet – just like me (*coughs*).

‘Follow’ me, love!