It’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap!) and we have two questions that are pretty similar in nature. So, no pun intended (which you’ll understand when you watch the video), I’m going to kill two birds with one stone.

My IRL BFF, Carlos Cruz, asks, “What’s your opinion, should you have just one twitter account? Or one personal and another professional?”

And Hansjörg Leichsenring asks something similar, “Hi, I would like to ask a question regarding your twitter usage. You have two accounts, @ginidietrich and @SpinSucks. What is the reason for this?” Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by John Fitzgerald .

Like most young wannabe filmmakers, I learned the basics of screenwriting by hanging out on film sets and reading books.

Books such as Syd Field‘s 1979 treatise on the three-act dramatic structure, simply titled Screenplay. Fields contends that writers must follow a rigid three-act structure in order to free themselves to develop their characters.

Twitter’s 140-character limit is not unlike the three-act structure in screenwriting. It’s rigidity forces the writer to be disciplined and economical with words while creating a strong visual to convey the story.

The challenge in great storytelling is two-fold:

1. To work within the constraints of the medium to make people empathize with the main character, the protagonist or,in your case, you/your organization.
2. To create an emotional connection with the viewer. Screenwriting and tweeting both give the writer that power.  Yet Twitter’s ability to incorporate photos and videos allows the user to go a step further than screenwriting allows, making it even more visual.

What would happen if you applied the storytelling principles of Screenplay in your every day Twitter usage?

It might go something like this:  Continue Reading »

Times change. Often, it changes the things we most wish would stay the same.

Most recently, the winds of change are touching a place that I’ve held quite dear…Twitter.

I’m beginning to come to terms with the reality that, perhaps for me, Twitter just isn’t ever going to be what it used to be.

Following are the top three reasons (I think) Twitter is beginning to suck. Continue Reading »

Samantha Collier is an artist, mother, law firm business development coordinator and social media enthusiast, and a @developsocially partner.

The Experience

I recently traveled to San Francisco for a conference. The firm I work for sponsors an upscale annual dinner for approximately 180 guests. I was co-organizing the event so it was critical that everything be perfect; particularly the food, which, we all know, can make or break an event.

The dinner was a huge hit.  I’m far from a food critic but it was hands down the best food I’ve ever tasted and the service was impeccable. They exceeded every expectation I had.  I could honestly write a separate blog post about the experience, but I’ll save that for another day!

For those of you who don’t know me,  I love to shout from the rooftops about great customer service. Most rational people would go to sleep as soon as they got back to their hotel rooms at 1:30 am, but not me.  I went straight to my computer to share my experience with the world. Continue Reading »

Between the Rapture, deadly tornadoes, and new Presidential candidates, the news is overwhelming and there are still some questions that need to be answered. Social media questions, that is.

Is Twitter buying TweetDeck?

According to The Guardian, there is talk that Twitter is in negotiations to buy the London-based, 15-person company, TweetDeck for – wait for it – $40 million!  TweetDeck has never turned a profit, and this will be Twitter’s sixth acquisition, so where’s the rub?

Dot com bubble 2012?

After the crazy market jump last week when LinkedIn went public, it has a lot of people wondering if this is a repeat of the dot com bubble. Gary Rivin at The Daily Beast explains why this market surge is not the same.  LinkedIn earned almost $250 million in revenue last year.  We have nothing to worry about.  The dot com bust was dealing with start-ups without business plans nor any profits to show a history of success. Continue Reading »

Leo Widrich is the co-founder of a new Twitter App called BufferApp, which allows you to tweet more fresh content without annoying your followers.

Getting noticed on Twitter isn’t always easy. If your stream is anything like mine there are lots of tweets rushing by and competing for your attention all the time. How do you stay relevant, and make yourself heard above the noise?

How can you make your content fresh and clickable for your followers?

Following are a few techniques that have worked well for me.  Continue Reading »

Brian Meeks has delusions of novelist, which he feeds by writing the Henry Wood Detective series (Available soon and on his blahg)

Kathryn sat at her desk watching her Twitter stream on TweetDeck.  There were a couple of people talking about a movie; she hesitated to jump in, because she had been watching for while. It always stressed her out, to feel like a lurker.

Her spawn had been put to bed an hour ago.  She felt like they didn’t appreciate her for hosting the little parasites for nine months, but she loved them.  Her husband was lightly snoring on the couch, while ESPN droned on in the background.

A quick check of Gmail revealed a bevy of stuff in the inbox.  A message from Groupon didn’t interest her, so she deleted it.  A few bits of spam were trashed too.  Then she saw it, from FB, “Mrs. Robinson, you have been tagged in a photo.” The anxiety she had felt at watching the Twitter stream now seemed trivial.  She couldn’t move, her right hand hovered over the mouse, afraid to click.  If it was from Lucy, she might kill her.  It was.

At least three people had already seen it. Continue Reading »

Does it seem like the weeks are flying by considerably quickly? Or is it just because we launch Spin Sucks Pro in 10 days and don’t have enough time left (not that I’m counting)?

Because time is flying, I’ve not gotten into my Google Reader this week so these stories I found on Facebook, through SmartBrief, or because I have (some) kind friends who sent me links.

Thanks for the extra support this week – I needed it!

Oh and…sorry for the gazillion comments I’m going to leave this weekend. I’ll be catching up on all of your stuff! Well, after I beat the Easter edition of Angry Birds, of course. Continue Reading »

Aaron Lee, known as Ask Aaron Lee, is your average Joe but with an extra-large social media addiction.

Has anyone ever told you you’re tweeting the wrong way? I wrote about the mistakes new Twitter users make based on some of my past mistakes. I wanted to share some lessons here so that you could learn from mine, and avoid the same ones.

First, let me be clear, everyone has their own opinion, there is no ONE right method of using Twitter. We all use Twitter in our own way with our own goals. 

Following are some common questions I receive. Continue Reading »

Marcus Sheridan is the author of  the popular blog The Sales Lion.

Dear Twitter,

Yes, I know I should have written you this note quite a while back but I finally had to come to grips with the gross error of my ways when I misjudged your character many moons ago.

Part I

You see, it all started when I was told by some social media guru that you were the next big thing. Needing whatever help I could find to sell more swimming pools, I figured I would give you a go. That’s when I put your little symbol up on my company’s website and just waited for the followers to pour in. But do you know what? They never did. Continue Reading »