Posts Tagged ‘community’

One year ago today (July 4th, 2009), thousands mourned the death of Eric De La Cruz after he was unable to get a heart transplant in time. Eric’s sister, television journalist Veronica De La Cruz (@VeronicaDLCruz), had reached out to her Twitter network and started an historic campaign that would connect thousands, raise over one million dollars in three weeks, and play a significant role in the U.S. health care debate.

There are hundreds of stories like this on Twitter and each one revolves around a strong community. After being a part of the Eric De La Cruz campaign (#ERIC) and many other efforts, I have identified four key tips for building strong and lasting Twitter communities.

A Quick Note
Please note, Twitter is one large community, so when I write “community” in this post I’m really talking about niche communities.

1) Follow community leaders

The best way to learn about amazing Twitter communities is to follow Twitter leaders and innovators. Following leaders helps understand the way they engage their communities and the larger dynamics of that particular community.

There are thousands of leaders who have had a significant impact on Twitter, in industries, and in society in general. Here are three community leaders:

Sarah Evans(@prsarahevans) – Founder of #Journchat, a Twitter chat organized to connect journalists, PR people, and bloggers. #Journchat has had tens of thousands of participants [my guesstimate] and has been in existence for almost two years. Journchat is even crossing over into mainstream media as it will be broadcast from NBC next month.

Mack Collier (@mackcollier) – Blogger and founder of #blogchat. #Blogchat has activated a large community of bloggers, with over 400 active participants per week and is growing.
Leslie Carothers (@tkpleslie) has been connecting members of the struggling furniture and interior design for the past two years.

2) Care and have a mission

Amazing Twitter communities start when the founders are passionate about a topic or cause. The topic may be promoting the furniture industry, sharing ideas between journalists, or helping to raise awareness for a cause. Chances are, the community will flounder without a strong reason for its existence.

Here are some examples of Twitter users who create community by caring:

Stacey Monk -(@staceymonk) has help created some of the most innovative and heartfelt fundraising efforts including Tweetsgiving.

Danny Brown – (@dannybrown) set up a network of tweeters that helped charities contribute via his #12for12 campaign.

Beth Kanter – (@kanter) has built a massive community of non-profit organizations that are promoting social change.

3) Reach Out

Community building on Twitter is a proactive behavior. Once you have a network of trusted friends, you can reach out to them and encourage them to reach out as well. The more powerful the intent of the community, the broader the reach.

The number of community members is not as important as the strength of the network. In the diagram above, the blue areas represent the “density” and connectedness of the trust network. The largest circle is the larger Twitter community, which may be listening but not necessarily engaged in the community.

Magic happens when different communities meet and support each other. At some point, the #ERIC group connected with a large number of Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails supporters and Trent (@trent_reznor) ended up joining and helping the cause in an amazing way.

4) Stay Connected

Twitter is a big place and it’s easy to get lost. The top three ways to stay connected are to use a hashtag when tweeting community-specific information, to set up a chat, and to use an avatar banner.

Hashtags
A hashtag is a combination of a “#” symbol in front of a short keyword or keyword phrase like #ERIC, #journchat, #tweetsgiving, #blogchat, or #12for12.

The hashtag is something Twitter users created and has since been adopted by Twitter. Twitter clients like Twitter Web and TweetDeck allow users to click on a hashtag then be linked to a search over other tweets using that hashtag. For example, if a tweet contains the “#blogchat” hashtag, clicking on it will take you to the #blogchat search results.

Hashtags become extremely powerful when community members start to monitor the hashtag content on a consistent basis. I monitor the #blogchat, #ERIC, #vlogchat, and the #WordPress hashtags and have them set up as different search columns in TweetDeck. This process allows even people who follow thousands of others to see the single conversation stream related to the hashtag.

Chats
Twitter chats are conversations held at regular times that use the related community’s hashtag. This Google Document lists over 150 Twitter chats and includes the names of the chat founders and the chat schedule. Chats help sustain long term community relationships.

Avatar banners
Avatar banners are the little graphics that are added to avatars to represent a cause or community. During the Iran election, thousands of people changed their avatars to have a greenish tint. During World Cup, I noticed a lot of country flags on avatars. For the #ERIC campaign, I created an avatar banner that also included the #ERIC hashtag. Once I started using the #ERIC banner on my avatar, others in the group created ways to easily distribute the banner and in a couple of weeks hundreds of people were wearing them.

Review

So if you are interested in starting your own strong Twitter community, you may want to follow Twitter leaders and learn, make sure you have a compelling reason to start a community in the first place, reach out and build your forces, and stay connected using things like hashtags, avatar banners, and scheduled chats.

Do you have any other tips for building an effective and strong Twitter community? Do you have any amazing stories that you would like to share about an existing community? I’d be honored if you left a Comment and shared with this blog’s community of readers.

#Vlogchat was created tonight on Twitter out of the #BlogChat after party on June 6, 2010.

The same thing tends to happen every week just after the official #BlogChat hour – little groups of video bloggers clump together and start talking about video. I suggested we start a #vlogchat hashtag and nine of us did.

If you’re not familiar with Twitter chats, they are conversations between many people that include a common hashtag keyword. In this case the hashtag will be “#vlogchat”. The hashtag allows people to view other hashtagged tweets Twitter Web, Twitter Search or via a third party tool like TweetChat or Tweetdeck.

Why #Vlogchat?

1. YouTube is the number two Web site in the world. Video is having a massive impact on world cultures
2. There are incredible things going on in video technology every day, including captioning
3. Video is an important element for all blogs
4. There’s a natural cross-over for filmmakers who may not think of themselves as bloggers
5. So we can also support each other on YouTube and other video channels
6. Because video is Fun!

When is #Vlogchat?

For now, we’ll have #vlogchat right after #blogchat. #Blogchat starts at 8pm Central time. So #vlogchat will start at 9pm Central time and it will run for one hour.

What’s Next?

I’m still going to be an active participant in #blogchat then will facilitate #vlogchat immediately afterward.

Are you a vlogger? Do you have a suggestion for next week’s #vlogchat? Leave a comment below with your #vlogchat topic suggestion and I’ll tweet out the selected topic next Saturday. I love Comments so don’t hold back!

Twitter is in the process of rolling out its new Lists feature and there is a lot of hubub going on about A-List egos, feeling left out, and the ton of Twitter Lists blog posts.

I totally understand the I-got-picked-last-for-kickball feelings that can accompany being left off “top lists” of any kind. I sympathize but don’t think we need to live there. This posts takes a step back and looks at Twitter Lists as a software feature that we can use to serve our needs, in nice ways.

These are the 6 ways I am using Twitter lists to meet my needs.

1. Thank your Followers/Friends
Make a “Great Tweeps” or a “Thank You” list and put the people you talk to most, support/promote most, who reply to you and retweet you most. If you have 1000′s on your list then you are blessed! Twitter only allows 500 people on a list though so you may have to create multiple lists.

2. Curate a Niche Knowledge List or Directory
For example, I am developing a online learning-to-blog-with-Wordpress class so I will create a list of people, businesses, and even feeds that focus on Worpress blogging. I can use this list to retweet excellent content to my students, to learn from the information, and to allow my students to follow without having to create their own list.

3. Create your own Twitter “Channel”
You can create your own channel of funny tweeters, sports heroes, or celebs. A “funny tweeter” once complained about “normal life and news tweets” interrupting his “funny site.” He almost exclusively follows other funny tweeters so his Twitter timeline reads like the Sunday comics. You could do the same with sports figures, writers, foodies, fashionistas, etc., and have your friends tune in if they like.

And since you don’t have to follow accounts to add them to your lists, you don’t have to worry about whether or not they will follow back.

4. Brand Yourself
Do you wish your Twitter followers had included you in their Marketing, Top Gardeners, or Expert Chefs lists but instead only added you to their Funny Tweeter list? If so, then you may want to take charge of your brand and create your own list. You don’t have to go in for the full ego stroke and create a “Top Marketers on Twitter” list (featuring you) but you can create a “Marketers I Listen To” list. When people see your Marketing or Gardener list then they will be more likely to add you to their list under that category.

5. Segment by Business or Professional Relationship
I have a business account on Twitter (@CDI) and it is very focused around my B2B Marketing “supply chain.” I primarily follow engineers, serious tech heads, PR/Tech Bloggers/Marketers, and electronics industry companies and service providers.

6. Build a Local Tweep Directory
If you work together with other Twitter followers in your region, you can create a comprehensive directory. I live in a smaller population county so this will be useful. We’re only at 100 people so far but once we quilt the different lists together, we could get up to 500 peeps on the list. This could also be useful in large metropolitan areas to create neighborhood or community-based lists

So there you have it, 6 ways to use Twitter lists that can benefit you, your tweeps, and your community in nice ways. Remember, the Lists feature is a just a tool, use it well.

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Photo Credit: koalazymonkey

In computer science and even manufacturing, there is a move to develop systems that heal themselves. The idea is that materials, fabrication, processes, and computer programs can be used to “repair” physical devices without the use of human intervention.

When the popular micro-blogging site Twitter.com was under siege by a widely-spread phishing attack, a massive people-powered healing system kicked in. By my estimates, thousands of people banded together to plug up the holes and stem the damage.

This warmed my heart.

At one point, nearly 50% of my Twitter stream was related to the phishing occurrences. People were communicating at a rapid pace, describing the fake phishing messages as warnings, while others were re-posting information (known as “retweeting”). I posted information on how phishing works, answered questions, and encouraged people to change their passwords.

Users of the site could have turned away and waited for the site admins to “fix things” but people chose to stay and help others. They did so because they believe in the community and they believe in the mission of the site and its potential.

Would your fans do this for your organization, business, or community?