An historic blizzard in blasting the Northeast and is shutting down air travel, affecting emergency vehicle response rates, and forcing many to stay indoors.

In classic social media style, Twitter users respond by tagging blizzard related tweets with #Snowpacalyse and #Snomageddon hashtags.

Some tweets are light-hearted:

Other tweets are serious requests for assistance:

Two Twitter Superstars, Cory Booker and 50 Cent have very different approaches to dealing with the resulting blizzard crisis.

CORY BOOKER – Public Service
Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker (@corybooker), is using Twitter as a sort of radio dispatch system to connect Newark citizens with updates on snow plow activity and to help with emergency services. With over 1 Million Twitter followers, much of the Twittersphere is seeing him in action and the media is taking notes.

Mayor Booker actually rolled up his sleeves and went out to dig people out.

50 CENT – A Lesson on Hustling
In a smaller scale shoveling endeavor, multi platinum rapper 50 Cent (@50Cent) shoveled his way out of his Connecticut home then said he intended to go into the shoveling business.

50 Cent later told his 3.7 Million Twitter followers that he was scaling up his shoveling operation and had hired 3 kids to help with door to door sales.

Whether or not 50 Cent was really charging and hiring people for his ad hoc business or just having some fun with his followers remains to be seen. But his tweet stream does provide a lesson on how to flex one’s hustle muscle.

Final Thoughts

I can personally relate to both Snowmageddon approaches. On the one hand, I’m all about public service and helping others in times of need. Cory Booker is definitely one of my role models. On the other hand, as a someone building my own consulting business, I appreciate 50 Cent’s startup hustle mentality.

I think that the snow fall and our response to it is a larger metaphor for strategies on how we’ll approach the new year. Will we work collaboratively and negotiate our way through the recession, job loss, and home price collapse or will we focus on our own personal islands?

Related Articles
* Mayor Hacks Snowmageddon With Epic Tweets- Wired Magazine
* 50 Cent Shovels Snow for Money After Northeast Blizzard – Billboard.com

Photo credits
* 50 Cent on Plixi
* @douglasingram on Twitpic
* @AgingBackwards on Twitpic
* @hijofrizbe on Twitpic

I love sharing information, including technology trends, social media How To’s, breaking and local business news, and information on advocacy groups. On Twitter, I’ll share 5-10 items per day, sometimes in a rapid fire method. On Facebook I’ll “Like” or “Share” several posts a day. Multiply these activities by the number of Twitter and Facebook users and you have an unprecedented amount of sharing and re-sharing.

So why limit the scope of your message? Let it run wild!

Here are five tips to help you set your message free.

Give Your Email Legs

Ok, so you spent two weeks working with a team to create the perfect email message. Maybe you’re about to launch a new product, announce a new conference, drive donors to your non-profit site, or share your latest video creation.

There are three important items to add to your email deployment checklist:

1. Do you have an online version of your email with a link to that page on the email? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a juicy email that I want to share with the world and struggled or have been unable to find the online version. If I don’t have a link, I can can’t share it with my online network. What a missed opportunity.
   
   If you do have an online version, please think clearly before deciding to host that content on the email management tool’s site. Do you want to drive content to Constant Contact’s site or to your site, for example?
2. Do you have a Twitter or Facebook share feature on your email? This makes sharing one step easier. With the click of a button, your message can flow to two of the most supercharged sharing sites in the world.
3. Is it easy to forward the email to a friend? Some email messages have nifty “Forward to a Friend” features that make it easy to share content. I rarely use this feature but there are some people who like it, especially if it is from an authority site like a news agency or major publication. If the email is breaking news or highly relevant to your personal or business contacts then this could help your message take off.

This Kodak email has an online version and ways for users to subscribe to Facebook and Twitter. The email could be enhanced with actual tweet buttons that automatically format the Twitter and Facebook messages, so posting is only one click away.

Let’s look at this from a numbers perspective. If you send out your email message to your permission-based list of 10,000 contacts and you don’t add any sharing features, then your message is limited to the number of recipients plus the number of times your email is forwarded to other contacts. Let’s be generous and say that 100 of the emails were forwarded to contacts. That’s a reach of 10,100.

If you add a link to your online content and have a Facebook and Twitter share then the numbers shift. Your initial contacts receive the message and can then re-post the message to their followers via Twitter or Friends on Facebook. If I tweet about an item, the message is instantly available to over 8,400 followers! That’s almost double the reach from ONE contact. Factor in retweets and other people sharing and the reach can get to 100,000 very quickly.

From your Website to the World

1. Add a Tweet button and Facebook Share and/or Like feature to your Web pages and blog posts. Yes, this is the same tip as for your email messaging but it’s important to give your site/blog readers a way to share content with their networks Clear a path.
2. Do you have a compelling image on your web page or blog post? A good photo or graphic will catch a persons attention and make it more share worthy. On Facebook, the image will show up as a thumbnail picture. Your Facebook friends will be much more likely to Like the post and to re-share it.
   
   Note: if you don’t select a photo to go with your page/post and someone “Facebooks it” then they will either get a selection of random image options (icons from your sidebar or unrelated content) or they won’t have any option.

(Link to The Spice Spoon blog.)

Review

We just reviewed how to clear a path for your important messages. If your message is clear, relevant, and timely then these tips can help your message spread like wildfire.

Do you have any other design tips to help your messages spread?

Photo Credit: Vestman on Flickr – License

Generating a “group picture” of your Twitter followers makes for a great visual for your Twitter background or for blog graphics.

I just ran into at tool called Twitter Mosaic which allows you to see either your followers or your friends (those you follow that follow you back).

It looks like the tool only captures about 100 followers then tiles them. So if you’re following a gazillion people then they won’t all show up.

You can also create a coffee mug or T-shirt or other products using the tool. I like the additional message on the shirt, “Are you following me?” Well are you?

Kevin Pollak (@kevinPollak on Twitter) made me bust up laughing at how he played the interviewee in this bit..oh, wait, it was really supposed to be an interview?

Alan Weinkrantz (@alanweinkrantz on Twitter) plays the “straight man” in this interview snippet at the 140 Conference in Hollywood. The 140 Conference is a unique collection of Twitter related presenters (“characters”) who present on an eclectic set of topics – everything from online psychics to personal online stories to global social media campaigns by major networks.

You can catch Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show here.

I had a great time, met tons of online friends, and enjoyed this interview.

Do you have any favorite 140 Conference moments?

When I heard Beth Kanter and Allison Fine had created a book for non-profits,The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, I had to pick up a copy. I’ve been following Beth on Twitter (@kanter) for a year and a half and had the opportunity to chat with her at the Twitterville launch party a year ago.

The Networked Nonprofit does an excellent job explaining the “What?” behind social media for non-profits. What is social media? How does it apply to non-profits and what is the larger picture?

It’s easy to get caught up in the technology and tools aspect of social networking. The Networked Nonprofit lays out an easy to understand view of the Web 2.0 environment without forcing readers to jump over technological jargon barriers.

Social media is all about networking, something non-profits understand very well. The book builds off of that familiar concept and uses it as a scaffold to approach topics like online engagement, transparency, and crowdsourcing.

I strongly believe that The Networked Nonprofit belongs on the nightstand of every non-profit manager and anyone looking to support non-profits.

You can order a copy or a set of The Networked Nonprofits books via Amazon (affiliate link below).

Photo Credit: Noah Sussman – License

Twitter recently rolled out its new iPad mobile application.  Go to the App Store to get the latest version.  Here’s a review of 5 cool features.

1. The application is made for the iPad. The previous application was just the iPhone version.

2. See multiple “views” on one screen. The new app allows you to see snippets of more than one view at a time.  This is basically a visual “breadcrumb.”  Unfortunately, there are a couple of instances when things get “stuck” and it is difficult to close the active panel.

3. Article/image previews on tweets. Click on an item in your timeline and see the tweet with the article preview below.  This saves a click and gives you a good idea if you want to continue and read the  article.

With the release of Flipboard, there has been a movement towards visual browsing of  tweets.  This is a great next step for Twitter.

4. “Faux” attachments on tweets. Twitter still doesn’t allow for attachments but this “Attachments” screen simulates that action.  On a new tweet, click on the paper clip and you get access to your iPad photo album.  The Twitter app ties in third-party image hosting companies to accomplish the faux attachments.

5. Integration with services.  The app also allows users to connect to third-party services like Posterous for image and video posting.  Video posting?  Apparently the Twitter app is ahead of the iPad development curve and is already listing different video services.

I was surprised by the way the app “knew” how to select my Posterous account since  I never use Posterous on the iPad.

Review

The new Twitter for iPad app is a great step in the right direction – it uses the iPad’s space intelligently and it incorporates preview features like rich desktop apps.  I tested some of the “gestures” mentioned in the Twitter blog post but they weren’t intuitive so they’ve got some work to do there.  All in all, it’s a must download.

Did you see any other great features?  Overall, do you like what Twitter has done?

I use Google Analytics to track activity to and from my blog. Unfortunately, there are a lot of holes in that process, especially related to Twitter clickthroughs.

• First, some users bookmark the page, then revisit the site. These visitors are great because they found value in the site and are coming back for more. However, there is no way to tell if someone actually bookmarked the page or if something else happened.
• Other visitors arrive here by clicking on a link from a mobile Twitter application. Several of these applications remove the “referrer” information which causes another question mark when I go to check stats.
• If a visitor is using Internet Explorer and clicks through on a link from a site that uses a JavaScript popup, then the referrer information is lost. This sounds like a minor case but if you’re doing hardcore tracking to drill down on a marketing campaign’s ROI, this factor can be maddening.
• Lastly, if a visitor clicks on the Tweet Button and posts a link to Twitter, the URL is “automagically” shortened via Twitter’s link service (http://t.co). If a user clicks on a tweeted out link, you’ll know that the visitor came from Twitter but you won’t know where the link originated. Did a user get there from clicking on a Tweet Button link? Did someone cut and paste the blog post’s URL from the Web browser into a tweet? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Benefits

Before I started using this Google Analytics tracking technique, 16.8% of my traffic was showing up as “Direct Traffic.” After I started tracking Tweet Button clicks and Feedburner subscription clicks, that number went down to 13.45% and a new “Other” figure emerged.

This is awesome because now I can examine the behavior of visitors who click on the Tweet Button. Do Tweet Button visitors stay longer, visit more pages, or take key actions? Now I can answer some of these questions when before it was a mystery.

Because a good chunk of my blog’s traffic comes from Twitter interactions, you can see that the TweetButton clicks are in the site’s top 10 Traffic Sources. I can also see individual stats related to these visitors such as Bounce Rates, Time On Site, Goal Conversions and more.

The Hack

We’re going to address the last case with this next hack. In order for this to work, you won’t be able to use the standard Tweet Button plugin. We’ll have to add the button by hand.

1. Go to the Google URL Builder Tool page.
2. Enter your site’s URL.
3. Enter the Campaign Source, Medium, and Campaign Name. I used “Twitter”, “TweetButton”, and “Blogpost” respectively.
4. Click on the “Generate URL” button. This will build a link just below the button.
5. Copy the link. We’re mostly concerned with the end of the link, starting with the “?” mark.
6. Paste this code into your theme’s Header or Footer template files. I placed the code just before the < /head > tag in the Header.
   [php]<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>[/php]
7. Configure your Tweet Button HTML code as in this example (for WordPress.org blogs): [php]<!–Twitter tweet button–>
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share"
   data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweetbutton&utm_campaign=blogpost"
   data-via="jesseluna"
   data-text="<?php the_title(); ?>"
   data-related="niceblog:My Blogging Lab"
   data-count="vertical">Tweet</a>

   <!–/Twitter tweet button–>[/php]

   The main “hack” comes from the data-url parameter value where we add the Google Analytics formatted tracking parameters, just after the Permalink. This way, when Twitter shortens the link into it’s t.co format, the link value will contain the tracking information.

   In the above example, “data-via” is the Twitter user name that will appear on the tweet as “via .” “Data-text” is the text I want to display with the link.  In this case I’m displaying the post’s title.  “Data-related” is an optional related account that can be displayed. In this case I’m showing my blogging Lab account, @niceblog. The “data-count” value indicates how you want the button to appear on the screen. I chose a vertical format. You can see all the options on the Twitter Tweet Button blog page.

8. For WordPress.org blogs, paste the edited code into the Page, Single Post, and Main Index template files. I added the button just before the blog post content, after the title and date/author section of the templates. This will vary based on your preference and on other tweaks you’ve made to your theme.

I tried hacking Posterous and Tumblr blogs but the built in URL template tags kept blowing away the parameters once the Tweet Button was called. If you figure out how to do this please drop a comment and I’ll update this post.

Review

We just learned how to tack on a Google Analytics parameter to Tweet Button clicks on a WordPress.org blog. This will help you connect the dots on your online marketing and analysis activities.


If you find this useful, I’d be interested in how and why you would use it. Are you a marketing manager, a small business owner, or a code hacker? I’d love to find out.