What Twitter Lists Say About You
By Niche
Are you using Twitter lists? If not, then you should. Twitter lists, when curated well, are a great way to cut through the noise on Twitter. BTW, you may want to check out List.ly which helps you to curate lists. I have three twitter lists that I created and they have been lifesaving, time-saving filters to find out what people are talking about on Twitter.
Foodiphiles - food bloggers on Twitter. Esential for food news.
Cupcake Bakeries- used mostly for Cupcakes Take The Cake. It is great way to see what bakeries are doing from all over the world.
Cool Black People- I actually created this list because I would get asked about other African American bloggers and twitterers, so the list made it easy to refer people to.
I am putting people into broad categories for my twitter lists, and people do the same to me. Recently, I took a look at the Twitter lists that people have put me in, and I realized that these lists give me an idea of what people think of me…at list on Twitter. I think that it shows how effective I am at reflecting my personal brand. Here are some of the lists I am on:
- Black Entrepreneurs
- Cupcakes
- Food Bloggers
- Food And Drink
- Girl Power
- Interesting People
- Media/Journalism
- NYC
- Social Media Pros
- Startupnation
- SXSW
- Zeitgeist
So I think I am putting out content on Twitter that lets people be able to assign me to the Twitter lists that make sense. Even if their Twitter lists were completely random, that’s fine. The point is that I tweet daily about lots of things, and I think that people are reading those tweets and seeing a connection between me and the content I share.
May 3rd, 2012
Social Media Is Not A Bringer Show!
By Niche
Lately, more people are doing social media for clients and part of that is a numbers game. Like a amateur comedian just starting out, you have to have a certain amount of people coming to the show to perform. These are known as bringer show. If you are a friend or acquaintance of someone doing comedy, then you know about the dreaded bringer show. You get pinged often by people asking to come to the show. Similarly, some social media gigs require a certain amount of “Likes”, “Retweets”, “Followers”, etc. First of all, I recommend to stop over-promising to clients. Building social media presence is long term process. Secondly, the strain that you may be putting on your friendships is not worth it. a A better strategy is to find which subset of friends who may be interested and message them. Stop sending blanket updates to everyone and please don’t beg for RTs. If you treat social media outreach like a bringer show, no one will come and the joke will be on you.
You Are Not As Funny As You Think. Twitter Enables Bad Jokes
By Niche
I admit that I try to be funny on Twitter. I like making people LOL, but sometimes I hesitate before I hit send because I don’t want to offend.
Heidi Moore of NPR retweeted this from Courtney Lilly last night after reading tweets about Whitney Houston’s untimely passing, and it was really insightful.
@moorehn If twitter’s good for anything it’s showing us how very few people are actually funny.
— Courtney Lilly (@courtneylilly) February 12, 2012
Lately, people have gotten into hot water because they have tweeted something offensive, rude, tasteless, racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain mean. Most often, the tweet was meant to be a joke. Somehow, the 140 characters that Twitter allows seems to be a perfect online outlet for a punchline. The expression, “Brevity is the soul of wit” comes to mind. However, comedy is not easy. There is a set-up. There is context. There is subtext. Comedians write loads of jokes that fall flat. The smart thing that many comedians do is write them in a notebook, and later try them out in front of an audience. The audience for the comedy is niche compared to the internet where an inoffensive joke can cause a lot of damage. A dumb tweet can lead to ridicule or worse–, getting suspended or losing a job.
Buzzfeed and Dumbest Tweets are great for aggregating for shameful tweets. That’s not where you want your tweet to be.
Think twice before you tweet. You are not as funny as you think.
It’s A Little Pitchy, Dawg
By Niche
Yesterday, I attended Fashion140 conference at Alice Tully Hall. What drew me to the conference was the location-Lincoln Center and the subject matter-fashion. I am not a fashion blogger but I love clothes and I love to shop. Single topic conferences can be really enlightening because speakers can hone in on their expertise without explaining the basics. However, this was not the case for all the speakers at Fashion140. Given that the most in the audience were experienced in blogging and social media, it is boring to tell people how to tweet, use Facebook or Tumblr. Some speakers were too pitchy by doing little more than reciting their bio and explaining how their site works. I would have liked to hear more examples of “social media serendipity”, advanced social media advice and what is coming next.  The excitement came from engaging speakers like Tom Guarriello, Yuli Ziv, Joe Zee, Robert Verdi, Josh Kilmer Purcell, Brent Ridge and Carole Rodie. I think conferences should also encourage speakers do presentations that more like Pecha Kucha or Ignite so that the attendees remember them which makes seek them out online later. One of the best thing about going conferences is seeing old friends like Sarah and Lauren.
Some sites you may want to check out: HauteLook, Where To Get It, Lyst
What Does Your Twitter Feed Say About You?
By Niche
Lately, I have been thinking about how I am perceived by others. This can be dangerous. It could make me doubt myself or bring up old insecurities that I thought I left at high school. One easy way to see how people see me is to look at the Twitter Lists I am on. Don’t sleep on Twitter Lists; they reveal a lot. I create a few myself to curate tweets from foodiphiles and cool black people.
How do people describe me? Let me count the ways. I am currently on 295 lists.
- Conference-attendee: I have been doing lots of conferences this year.
- Friend: Some people consider me a friend.
- New York/Brooklyn: I am tagged by location.
- Woman: I am tagged by gender
- Black: I am tagged by race
- Food: I tweet about food
- Cupcakes: I am a cupcake enthusiast
- Social Media: I practice the art of social media
- Blogger: I have been blogging long time
- Interesting:Â I guess my tweets are interesting
140Conference Day 1
By Niche
For some strange reason, I thought that the 140Conf was at 92YTribeca, not the 92nd Street Y. So I had schlep from the “Lower West Side” near the Holland Tunnel to the Upper East Side.
I got inside around 10AM to hear the end of Dan Harple’s presentation. He was talking about creating places and experiences. Gypsii.
Chris Lehmann excellent presentation about School 2.0. He is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy. Classes cannot be silos but lens to view the world.
Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO at Kodak, and now famous for his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice. Regarding ROI for using twitter, Hazlett says “forget return on investment. it’s return on ignoring.”
Ivanka Trump was interviewed by Jeffrey Hazlett. “To develop your brand means you have to be extremely consistent.”
Chris Weingarten. His presentation/rant was great. “Firsties! The race to be first is the most insidious fucking Ebola virus to hit the internet. When clicks are your lifeblood, good writing dies. Don’t let math dictate your music choices. Don’t believe the Hype Machine.”
Andrea Syrtash used relationship advice to apply to Twitter relationships.1. Worry less about impressing others. Let others impressed you. 2. You can’t have intimacy without vulnerability. 3. People want to be challenged-not changed.”
Joan Walsh from Salon lead a panel on Twitter rules when talking about race. Follow a diverse group. Don’t use lazy words.
ElonJames.Don’t be a douchebag. If you write something, and makes someone uncomfortable, then tweet it.
Prof Blair Kelley.Tweet as you who are. Make sure you have the time. Always use evidence. Don’t use the word “racist” or “racism”.
Liza Sabater. Harness your inner asshole. Vocabulary matters. Use emoticons when being snarky.
You may have heard the expression, there is no free lunch. I never thought it would apply to a conference. I stopped taking notes after getting lunch at Effy’s Cafe and tweeted a little during the rest of the afternoon.
Haiti Has A Face
By Niche
Found this photo on iStockPhoto and it is personifies what I want to say here, “Haiti has a face”. I have never been to Haiti. I know several Haitian Americans, and can only hope that their families are OK. If you are on Twitter, you should follow Wyclef who even before this earthquake has been leading humanitarian efforts in Haiti for years. I saw him at the 140Conference last year and he was great.
Here are some useful information that lists ways you can help from NPR.
Niche List: The Collander For Your Calendar
By Niche
Years ago, I had an email newsletter, then a blog named “Nichelle Newsletter”. Both of those extinct vehicles were used to spread the word about cool stuff and promote events that I love. It seems that a list is needed again, if only so that I can keep up with events I may be going to. Hopefully I will run this weekly on Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings since that is the best time for me and I will only post up to five things. So here goes!
Friday October 16 Royal Flush party at Crash Mansion. Open Bar. 4 bands. (Sounds like a clusterf#@k, but I am a sucker for parties thrown by obscure magazines.) Topic? Animal? Anyone?!
Tuesday October 20 Emily Farris’ 5th Annual Casserole Crazy Party at Brooklyn Label. I will be judging the casserole contest along with Tom Mylan and Rachel Wharton. 6:30PM
Tuesday October 20 Erin and Her Cello performing at Googie’s (Upstairs at Living Room) at part of CMJ 11:30PM [Client]
Wednesday October 21 #140Conf Meetup at MSNBC Digital Cafe. I will be speaking. 5PM.
Friday October 23 New Work City First Anniversary Party. 200 Varick is my second home. 8PM
If you know me, then you may know Matt, so check out his Consortium List which usually comes out on Sunday nights.
Tweets From The Women and Feminism Panel
By Niche
Heather Gold led an interesting yet somewhat meandering panel about feminism, privacy and social networking.
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