Posted by Gabe on March 13, 2011 under Kids are Heroes, Non-Profits | 
A few weeks ago I learned about JustCoz.org, which allows people to sign up and permit non-profits to tweet once a day through their Twitter stream. I was a bit reluctant at first to sign up because I saw it as something that can easily be misused and our reputation is so important to us, that I didn’t want people to get the wrong impression. (How it works is explained here.) After using it I quickly realized how much it can help us, so have been asking (admittedly sometimes too much) for people to join our “Twitter Team.” In approximately three weeks we have just over 200 people signed up to this service. (To see what we’re talking about, visit http://justcoz.org/KidsAreHeroes).
So far it has been going quite well. A few people didn’t fully realize what they had signed up for and couldn’t understand how I could be tweeting through their stream. Again, to make sure this is a pleasant experience for everyone, I quickly told them how they could opt out of it (which I will repeat a bit later in this post.) When you work so hard in social media as I do, it becomes almost intoxicating to have such instant gratification when you can tweet through so many people’s stream simultaneously. There was one comment about someone being annoyed because the same tweet was coming out of a someone’s Twitter stream once a day. Although the complaints were extremely few and far between, their point was taken. If 20 people join then imagine how much more of an impact 40 would make. Once you hit 200 supporters then 400 looks amazing. For us this is the perfect application because getting the word out to as many people as possible is paramount to us. We are reaching thousands in our Twitter stream, but ultimately we plan on reaching millions as we truly believe what we are doing can have a worldwide impact. So of course the tweet I am going to send is to ask more people to join our JustCoz campaign.
However, the point about the same tweet going by is a valid one. My initial plan was to get as many supporters lined up before we start marketing our huge event in May (blog post to come on that one). But this is social media, and our mission is to support our kids, so I have decided to change the tweets up a bit to support our heroes and other related things. The timing of the first one was perfect, for several reasons. If you know us well enough, you know that for a year and a half we have been trying to help Austin get his wish. It just so happens that the Extreme Home Makeover people are looking for a family in his area right now. So here is the tweet that went out this morning:
“Please help 11 y/o @CalistaCares fulfill her brother Austin’s Wish. http://bit.ly/245A7p #DT @KidsAreHeroes” (For the record, the #DT @KidsAreHeroes” is appended to every tweet I send out of JustCoz. I have no control over that.)
Even though I tweeted it out on a Sunday, it got quite a bit of notice. I would like to iterate what John of @mcleansports wrote in the Comments section:
“I will foward this story to a few people i know here in NY and see if we can get the ball rolling for him. Also, Will send to News stations as well. I am sure someone will see it and touch them enough to keep things going and word of mouth is the best way to get his story out. With this i am sure that word will get to them and this Dream will happen. If it is fixing current house or Building a new One. Together we will make this happen. I will start with Three Talk shows and see if One of these will be moved enough to start the process. God bless you Austin and Don’t Worry Dude this will happen for you.”
So of course this made me feel good — a lot better than getting a few more supporters. Since the EMHO campaign goes on through the end of March I plan on doing it again, maybe on a Thursday or Friday morning where Twitter traffic is pretty heavy.
But this taught me that I should mix it up a bit so as to respect all the people who have given us the privilege of using their Twitter stream once a day. So if you sign up, this is what I promise:
What I Will Tweet
I will tweet posts like the one I wrote for Austin. I will also send links to our heroes’ profiles on our site and/or blog posts where I interview or feature them. I still will occasionally ask for more JustCoz supporters. I will also sometimes point the links to our donor walls, as this serves two purposes. 1) It rewards and encourages the supporters who have already purchased a “brick” on our walls and 2) it should indeed help with our fund raising efforts. This is the least obnoxious, most efficient and even fun way I know to ask for donations. On a rare occasion I might send out our Facebook page, although I get turned off when people on Twitter always want to “connect on Facebook.”
Starting in the next few weeks, I will also occasionally send out notifications about our huge Tweetup hosted by @DabneyPorte and her company Social Marketing Concepts. They are hosting this event in the greater Baltimore area in May and all the proceeds go to Kids Are Heroes.
And from March 17-25 I will send out tweets asking for votes for our founder MaryMargaret, who is a semi-finalist for The “Energizer Bunny Hall of Fame” contest, where if she wins she will receive a scholarship and a sizable donation for Kids Are Heroes.
What I Won’t Tweet
I will not attach bogus hashtags with my tweets just to get more visibility. That would be spamming through your Twitter stream and I’m not the type who would bite the hand that feeds it. Everything will be G rated and hopefully inspiring to your followers as well.
So if you’d like to sign up, here you go. We’d love it if you did. Visit http://justcoz.org/kidsareheroes and click the “Donate a Tweet” button. Each day I do it, JustCoz will send out the tweet I write for everyone. And as a thank you gift, we will grant you one free promotional brick on our JustCoz Wall just for the asking. To opt out, visit the same link, log in with Twitter, and click the “Stop Supporting” link at the top, or you can simply Revoke your JustCoz Twitter connection at any time. Either way I want this to be a positive experience for all. If there ever is any issue, send me a mention @KidsAreHeroes and I will address it as quickly as I can. And again, thanks so much to everyone who is supporting us!!
Posted by Gabe on December 31, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter |
I just recently had my one-year anniversary on Twitter. At the risk of copying my friend @DannyBrown who has a series of “Ten in 2010″ posts, one of which I made the list (thanks to my extensive lobbying and a rather substantial sum of money) I felt the urge to come up with a list of ten people I would like to meet at a “tweet-up” in 2010. Most of these people have supported us from the beginning and others I would just like to get to know. Without further ado, here is my list in no particular order of relevance.
1) @OKE_News Menachem works tirelessly for the benefit of underprivileged children. If you haven’t met him check out his profile and his web site. He’s the only guy I know who tweets harder than I do.
2) @ThirstAidLive Denise and her whole family are always planning fund raisers. Big fund raisers — for other people. This year she was hit by that huge flood in Atlanta and lost her house. Sometimes life can be very unfair. She is now organizing a flood relief concert for her community that was so devastated. I hope we can pick up again where we left off real soon as we had plans to work together.
3) @JohnHaydon @JoeWaters – This is a “two-fer” since where you find one the other one is standing right beside him. John is a model of how to be in social media, always helping and supporting other people and has been a great champion for Kids Are Heroes. Joe is his sidekick and quite frankly I don’t remember what he does. But I heard he is fun to have around at parties. ;)
4) @DannyBrown started the #12for12k effort. If you are not familiar with it check out his web site and learn about it. This movement is a great demonstration of the power of social media if you know how to interact with it properly. In addition to that it is helping people all over the world.
5) @PoulinGail is a kindergarten teacher from Southampton Massachusetts who reads a different story from the Kids Are Heroes web site to her class each and every day. How I know this is because they post shout-outs to one of the heroes after they have read the story. Each time I see this I am extremely encouraged as this is exactly what the web site is designed for. She even got the class together and collected socks for the homeless emulating one of our heroes. I just wish we had a thousand other teachers just like her.
6) @RichardBranson doesn’t really tweet to me but if you know anything about how Kids Are Heroes got started you’d know that he was a major influence. Coincidentally in March of 2009 we entered a contest sponsored by Sir Richard and thanks to the Kids Are Heroes fans we won! In the month of June our video pitch was played on Virgin Atlantic planes for the entire month. I am one who is never star-struck, but this is one “celebrity” I would surely like to meet.
7) @AARprotectkids is run by Zephora Haddon. She has been watching us from the start and has generously included us in her fund raising activities. Her Amber Alert registry business is growing impressively which only helps us because as more people sign on and select Kids Are Heroes as a charity the more support we get.
8) @hiannie is my friend from Singapore. Among other things she teaches Mandarin Chinese online. She is also just a really good person who I could learn so much from besides a different language.
9) @TheElders I have never met any of these people but would humbled to meet just one. This was the group started by Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel (who by the way is not on Twitter otherwise I would add him to this list). This group of “elders” with the likes of Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela go out to troubled areas on our planet and try to help resolve difficult issues in a peaceful manner thus saving thousands of lives. I would just love to be a fly on the wall during one of their strategy meetings.
10) Kids Are Heroes List - I know I am cheating but I would really love to meet all the kids on the Kids Are Heroes web site (now approaching 100) and their parents as well. (I guess I need a bigger hall to rent for this tweet-up.) Our lives have been so enriched since we started this venture and it is all because of these children. My sister came down for the second annual Kids Are Heroes Day in October and when the “after-party” was over she told me specifically, “I met some very special people today.” This sums it up very nicely and I couldn’t agree more.
I know I said “top ten” but they are my rules and sometimes I like to break them.
11) @SueScheff is the author of the “Google Bomb!” book which is an eye-opener when it comes to what can happen to one’s reputation if someone smears it online. She is also a champion of teens and helps parents deal with sensitive subject matters regarding teens. She is also a great Kids Are Heroes supporter and has been for a long time.
12) My Colorado Peeps: @DaveWebb @EricRodwell and @MiloGirly I lived in Boulder Colorado for three months a little over ten years ago. I had just gotten a job and three days later I was told I was shipping out. Certainly there are worse places to be so I lucked out in that department. I have traveled all over the US and Canada and if I had to live anywhere other than Frederick, MD it would be in Colorado. I loved the climate, the scenery and mostly the people. Dave, Eric and Kyra are all great examples of those people.
So this is my ultimate tweet-up. For those of you who feel left out, you can come too. I’m sure I missed some real gems, so you can let me have it in the comments section and I will somehow try and make amends.
Posted by Gabe on November 11, 2009 under Twitter |
I checked my Twitter profile this morning and noticed I had a big jump in the number of lists that mentioned me. My smile morphed into a look of perplexity when I discovered that all the new lists came from the same user. That’s funny, I thought. I was about to walk away from the issue when I looked deeper into these lists. I won’t give the user any publicity, but they were claiming to host names of child sex traffickers, sexual predators and other cyber crimes. These are the lists that I was on!! It seems to be some sort of new bot that is putting random people (I am in good company with Regis and Kelly) on these lists.
The good news is that if you block and/or report as spam you will automatically be taken off all their lists. I couldn’t do that fast enough.
So now we have to make sure all the lists that we are being put on are legitimate. Twitter can be such a great tool, but also can be quite frustrating thanks to the other “tools” that are using it.
UPDATE 11/28/09: Not all Twitter lists are as offensive as the one mentioned. I just discovered that I was on a list created by someone who has a “thing” about a company. This morning I read an interesting post that challenged a particular company to get better instead of just advertise. I liked the read so I retweeted it. This afternoon I discovered I was on a list of “People who are Disappointed with So-and-So Company”. I didn’t want to be part of the list creator’s agenda, so I blocked him to get me off the list. So again, be vigilant in combing through the lists you appear on.
Posted by Gabe on June 11, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners |
Every once in a while when I think of it I like to solicit questions from my Twitter colleagues to see if there is any way to help the newer signups out there. I put out the call this morning and among others received this question: “What if I don’t follow back followers? Is it a contest to have the most? How can I ever read all those tweets?“ My answer is clearly that you do not have to follow back everyone that follows you. For some it is a contest, but for most it’s about connecting with people. And how do you keep track of all of them? The answer is that eventually if you follow enough people there is no way that you can. You end up with Tweetdeck or some such application that can help manage all the people that you follow.
Then there was a tweet pointing to a post about annoying DMs that come with spammy links. The writer mentioned that there should be no Twitter rules, but that he hates it when people DM these links after a follow (and so do I).
I have written a few posts on Twitter followers, but all this made me think of a new approach. Yes, there should be no Twitter rules, but I have some that I follow myself. I once came across a profile that said that this person doesn’t follow back if 1) There are few updates, 2) There is no conversation in their Twitter stream and 3) The person follows more than 600 people. Now I got past #1 and #2, but what about #3? According to her profile she wouldn’t follow me back just because I follow a lot of people. Hey, I’m a nice guy – she might be missing out on something. Then I came to the conclusion that these are her rules and she has every right to stick by them. As a matter of fact, I was very impressed with her putting them on display. I clicked the Follow button anyway, with the hopes that she would bend her own rules a little.
So, I am putting my own personal rules or reasons out there for everyone to see – feel free to pick them apart, agree or whatever. I reserve the right to deviate from them from time to time – after all, they do belong to me. ;)
Why I Didn’t Follow You Back…
1) Because you are a dude who wears no shirt in your avatar. No good reason – just don’t do it.
2) Because you have no (or very few) updates – especially if you are following a bunch of people. How can I tell whether I am interested if there’s no substance?
3) Because you didn’t fill out your profile, or said you were from the “Planet Earth”, “Cyberspace” or “Everywhere”. Where you are from and what your passions are interest me.
4) Because you do not converse with others. If I see no @ signs in your stream it means in my mind that you don’t “get” what Twitter can do for you and you just want to hear yourself talk.
5) Because you have an animated GIF as an avatar – one with blinking sunglasses or animals jumping around. Or also if you orient your picture sideways or upside down. Too much work for me to talk to you face to face. Your efforts to attract undue attention to yourself have backfired at least in my case.
6) Because all I see in your Twitter stream are retweets. Although it is very generous to retweet, I am looking for people who can also think for themselves.
7) Because most or all of your posts send out the link to your web site.
8) Because you follow WAY more people than follow you. Looks like you are spamming.
9) Because WAY more people follow you than those that you follow. Either you think you are a celebrity or you just want to hear yourself talk.
10) Because your profile pic is not updated, you have one tweet with a link, no profile…Really? Are you actually convinced that is an effective marketing method?
11) You have 10,000 followers and only 5 updates. Your tweets aren’t that good!
12) Because your color scheme makes it so difficult that I can hardly read your profile and/or Twitter stream. Light pink on white and dark gray on black just doesn’t work, people!
13) Because you take the “What are you doing?” question literally and all I see are short posts on what you do throughout the day. Get over yourself.
14) Because your avatar is of a female chest shot in a bikini and you are going to show me how to make money filling out surveys all day. Really??
15) Because you tweet only sporadically – maybe once a week or so. How can I have a conversation with you?
16) Because you protect your updates and your profile is either missing or vague.
17) Because your avatar is disturbing. You got through every other criteria – you are social, profile is filled out, you are generous – I couldn’t imagine having to look at that avatar all the time.
18) Because I read in your profile a tweet that said “Get 10,000 followers easy using blah blah blah.” Your follower count: 147. Wow!!
19) Because your profile read “This is NOT SPAM!” If it takes that much of an argument then I guess it is.
Why I Unfollowed You…
1) Because you sent me a link of how I can get 16,000 followers on Twitter in 90 days.
2) Because you used profanity in your tweet. (I have a 10-year-old who is always looking over my shoulder.)
3) Because you stopped using Twitter. If you haven’t tweeted in a month that tells me you gave up.
4) Because you stepped over the line. You retweeted my tweet and I thanked you – then you asked me to retweet something of yours. That wasn’t cool.
5) Because you keep posting about how great you are and how we should see your web site.
6) Because you didn’t respond to my @replies. I see that you are still tweeting but after several attempts to connect with you I have received no response. No hard feelings – guess you are just not that in to me.
7) Because your posts are too much of a religious nature. I have nothing against religion but I personally don’t feel Twitter is the place to convert people. Let’s make a deal. You don’t try and convert me to your religion and I won’t try to convert you to mine.
8) Because you clogged my Twitter stream with too many posts in a row – either repeating yourself or sending out multiple links. I tolerate that to a point but be careful with it.
9) Because I saw the tweet “RT @garymcaffrey blah blah blah” in your Twitter stream about a pyramid scheme to get more followers. It benefits him more than anyone and you just damaged your own reputation by using it.
10) Because you keep begging for RTs, votes and/or followers. Believe me – it is great that you passed 100 followers but you are one of the very few who cares. The followers will come naturally. The RT’s will too as long as your tweets are interesting.
11) Because you asked me to join your mafia or be your spymaster. These are two games going around Twitter. If you are using Twitter to play games then you really don’t get what it can do for you.
12) Because you sent me an auto-dm with a spammy link and asked me to retweet it. WHAT?!?
13) Ok let me get this straight. I followed you, then you auto-DM’ed me back with: “I just gave you peace and happiness” plus a spammy link. If that wasn’t enough you added “You should send me a gift back.” Here’s my gift: UNFOLLOW.
14) So Donald Trump is going to make us all millionaires and you want to be the 500th person to tell me about it. You’re fired.
15) You sent me an @reply about how great a tweep I am. Now I normally would thank you for this, except I noticed you aren’t even following me. My reputation must be really awesome. I see in your twitter stream that there are thousands of other great tweeps like me. Do you really spend your day typing that stuff in??
16) You sent a #followfriday to me and others which was nice. What’s that I see? A spammy link in the middle? We are not stupid, spammers!
Why I Blocked You…
1) Because we have no relationship and you @replied to me with a link to your spam. Seriously??
2) Because your avatar and/or posts are pornographic or link to porn. Or if you have the word “Horny” in your Twitter ID.
3) Because your avatar is a pretty girl, your ID is cryptic, you are following a bunch of people and you have only one tweet that links to your spam.
4) Because you @replied to me asking me to do something that benefits you when we have no relationship.
5) Because you sent more than one direct message to me asking me to do the same thing. If I didn’t act on your request the first time, leave it alone. I get so many requests and can only do so much.
6) Because you followed and unfollowed me several times in the past 24 hours to try and get my attention – it worked – I blocked you.
7) Because I just discovered that you wrote a blog post a week later that was titled the same as mine and paraphrased my thoughts without any credit. (Happened to me regarding this post.)
8) Because you actually had the nerve to copy the text of someone else’s reply to me and and resend it with your spammy link attached to the end of it. Wow! I can’t wait to buy your junk!! Are you kidding me?
9) Because you @replied to me (and others) with the words “Free affiliate software…”
UPDATE: 06/14/10.: I have noticed that services like TwitIn and Huitter have now said that by providing a way to mass unfollow and/or follow they are violating Twitter’s new Terms of Service. I have noticed that, thanks to this effort, I have been getting fewer (if any) porn bots following me lately. (Thanks Twitter!) However the spammers will never give up — their new way to get at you is to reply to your inbox with their spam. I see this a lot which instantly triggers a “block and report for spam” from me. So please be very careful how you address people for the first time. A request to follow or retweet, without any history, could get you blocked.
Why I Followed You…
1) Because your profile is filled out with actual places, names and passions.
2) Because you have a good amount of updates that vary in substance.
3) Because your avatar is of yourself and you are smiling.
4) Because I see that you retweet, converse and also have thoughts of your own.
5) Because your tweets are (at least most times) interesting and informative.
6) Because I see we have a chance of connecting.
7) Because you promote others’ causes that interest you whether they be professional or non-profit.
8) Because you engage with other people.
9) Because you have a relatively even follower/following ratio.
10) Because you are not hard-selling everyone. You are promoting something but being social first is encouraging people to see what you do after they connect with you.
11) Because you left a thoughtful comment on one of my blog posts – because of that I looked you up and discovered you. I may have missed you when you followed me.
12) Because I studied your profile and your Twitter stream. You are a parent, an educator, a philanthropist or someone I think that might really enjoy our web site.
13) Because I can see through your tweets that you are trying to help other people – to lift them up – this is what Twitter is all about!
14) Because I feel that I can learn something from you. Whether it be cultural or otherwise, Twitter can be used as a personal enrichment tool.
15) Because you don’t pretend to be someone you are not.
16) Because you engaged with me in a friendly (non-spammy) way. Again, I might have missed you when you followed me.
17) Because you are a genuine person who supports others.
What many people don’t realize is that when you send a link to someone you’ve never contacted before, that is spam. That same link, if sent after you have connected with someone, becomes interesting and might open up new doors. Take the time to connect with people – you will be amazed at the results.
Ok – what did I miss? I’m sure quite a bit. If this is like my other Twitter posts I will be updating it from time to time as I learn more. Happy tweeting!
Just discovered this similar post by Lee Devlin. Might also be of help.
