With Hurricane #Sandy barreling down in the East Coast and major power outages expected, @FEMA (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) issued a statement today urging people to stay connected via social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook when other modes of communication fail. One of many tweet reads:

People’s in Sandy’s path are also being urged to charge up their phones and to follow certain Twitter accounts, such as @FEMA, for updates, alerts and tips. Local governing agencies are also setting up or pointing people to certain Twitter accounts to keep people informed, since many might still be able to access social media sites via phone during the storm.

During many emergencies over the last few years — tornadoes, hurricanes and the tsunami in Japan — people who found themselves without a landline or land internet connection — were able to connect via smartphone. Many Twitter accounts, especially those for news services and government agencies, dedicated their Twitter accounts to posting information and updates about the disasters. People also were able to locate family members and friends via social sites.

Here’s a list of sites & accounts to follow during #Sandy:

National Hurricane Center - get text/email updates

@NHC_Atlantic - National Hurricane Center

@usNWSgov - NOAA’s National Weather Service

@WeatherChannel - The Weather Channel

@TWC_Hurricane - The Weather Channel Hurricane Updates

LIVE Updates/News from the New York Times

GOOGLE Map for Hurricane Sandy

GOOGLE Map Specifically for New York City

Tags: Facebook, Hurricane Sandy, Natural Disaster, social media, Twitter

Article by Lillian Sanders, Guest Contributor

If you are looking for a new job, you may be judged on your credit rating as well as your social media rating. For jobs that require a good understanding of social media, how often you update your Twitter and Facebook, as well as what you post, may help you get hired.

Third-party companies like Klout use data from many social networking sites to create a score that represents how much influence you have. The higher your score, the more people pay attention to what you have to say. Unfortunately, a high number of followers is not enough to raise your score. You must also engage your followers and influence them with your messages.

In 2009, noted blogger Anil Dash was on Twitter’s list of suggested people to follow. Although he gained upwards of 100 new followers per hour, this did not increase his website traffic, replies or retweets on Twitter. This is because these new followers were not listening to his messages, nor did he have any influence on them.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams believes that retweets are more important than the number of followers. Retweets help you reach a larger audience, and since they trust the person who retweeted your message, they are likely to trust your message. Twitter does tell users when and who retweeted their message, but they do not display how many users saw your message.

Klout uses a complicated algorithm that is designed to measure how important social media users are. It gives each user a number from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most influential. Companies can use this number to help their customers. Hopefully, this number will not be used to tell how important a person is, but rather give ways the company can help the person.

Some hotels have already started upgrading a person’s room based on their Klout score in hopes the person will give a positive review on Twitter or Facebook. Instead of giving perks to only a select few, companies could use this information to suggest local restaurants and attractions based on the person’s interests on social media sites. In addition to a number score, Klout also gives a list of topics that the user tweets about regularly. This would help the company make suggestions, and the customer will be happy with their stay and have a positive opinion of the company.

This seems to be a better way to use Klout and social media influence. Since not everyone uses social media for their jobs or pleasure, it seems unfair to punish those with a low score. It is like picking the most popular person out of a room and offering them an upgrade.

Lillian Sanders is a creative writer from Michigan. She thanks TweeParties for the guest posting opportunity. As a writer, Lillian is contributes to CD Duplication in Orlando helping create marketing presentations.

Tags: influence, Klout, social media, Twitter

In requests for more information about our Twitter party and Twitter chat services, we are often asked, “How can I get my hashtag to become a trending topic on Twitter?”

The question’s frequency makes sense: To have your hashtag or brand name displayed along Twitter’s ‘trending topics’ column is a coveted position, with the top or ‘promoted’ trend costing an advertiser a reported $120K to achieve it. Trending topics are seen and monitored by millions of sets of eyes per day; to be one of them can be game-changing for a company. When a user clicks on a trending topic, they will see a list of all recently-tweeted tweets that contain that term. For companies, this means having more people learn about them and get introduced to their products and services. And free advertising that could be seen by millions is impossible to resist.

What exactly makes a topic trend?

According to Twitter, “an algorithm determines which topics are ‘trending’ in the location you’ve selected. This algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis.” What this means is, one million people each day might tweet Justin Bieber’s name, but sheer volume doesn’t make a topic trend. A trending topic usually represents a surge of tweets, even if the volume is less than that of a topic tweeted about regularly. It’s Twitter’s way of trying to keep is users aware of what is current and newsworthy. If sheer volume was the only factor, Justin Bieber might be the top trending topic every day for years, making the whole point of having trending topics useless.

How do I do it?

Often a trending topic is something that is newsworthy that suddenly becomes talked (or tweeted) about by a large number of people at the same time. For example, an event being watched on t.v., such as an awards show or sporting event, are likely to become part of a trending topic due to the number of people who are likely to tweet about it at or around the same time. So there is the element of timeliness as well as volume that seems to make for a trending topic. Your goal then should be to get a lot of people tweeting your hashtag at the same time. If you do not have a national stage to work with (such as a high profile t.v. show or event), then a great way to attempt to achieve this is a Twitter event, such as a Twitter chat or party. Twitter parties occur at a specific time, have a certain hashtag that people will tweet to be included in the event, and usually have a significant number of attendees online at the same time who will tweet using that tag. However, simply deciding to have an event and holding it won’t guarantee that your hashtag trends; you still have to put together a quality event with a skilled host, informative content, noteworthy or high-profile guest contributors and awesome prizes and special offers to really get some buzz. We’ve found that those elements are a big draw when it comes to Twitter parties, and are most likely to get tweeted about. However, there is a downside to becoming a trending topic during a chat: hashtag spam. Once you’re topic starts trending, beware of spammers hijacking your tag by using it to promote their own links completely unrelated to yours. Be prepared to offer followers of your chat an alternative hashtag to switch to for purposes of the chat, to steer clear of spammers and get the chat’s conversation back on track.

How not to do it.

Twitter has specific guidelines for hashtags and tweeting that, if not followed, could get your account flagged when trying get your hashtag to trend. If you see another topic trending and try to get your hashtag noticed by including it in a tweet along with the other trending topic’s hashtag, that is considered spammy and unacceptable (Twitter does not like unrelated hashtags in tweets; it’s misleading). Repeatedly tweeting you hashtag, or encouraging others to do as much as possible so as part of a tweeting contest, in an attempt to get it trending without adding value to the conversation the hashtag is part of is another no-no (tweeting contests are acceptable if limited to one tweet per day). Also, taking a trending topic hashtag and tweeting out links to your profile or website along with those trending tags is another way to get into trouble. On Twitter, like everywhere else on the web, organic is good. Create hashtag tweeting opportunities that are natural and not forced. While it’s great to get a topic to trend, it’s even better to provide excellent content to your followers, become a value to them, and remain in good standing with Twitter.

With ‘Tailored Trends,’ Are Trending Topics as Valuable as They Once Were?

Recently, Twitter allowed users to get ‘tailored trends’ — or to turn their list of trending topics into a column customized just for them. Twitter says this about tailored trends: “Trends offer a unique way to get closer to what you care about. Trends are tailored for you based on your location and who you follow.” To turn this setting off or on in your own account, go to the “change” button next to the trending topics column. Click on that, and you’ll get the option either to turn this feature off or on, depending on your current settings. The intent of this feature is to help users see trends related to those issues/places/people who matter most to them. Tailored trends takes into account a user’s location and those users he/she follows to come up with a list of trends that are relevant that user alone. With this feature turned on, the topics you see trending are no longer the same as what everyone else is seeing, but rather made just for you. What does this mean for trending topics in general? When your hashtag trends, it may not be seen by as many eyes as in the past, since everyone might not see the same trends. However, if you don’t succeed at making your hashtag trend on a worldwide (or countrywide/citywide scale), it still might have the ability to trend to your followers — or those who might really matter to you and who are already eager to hear what you have to say. Tailored trends might have put somewhat of a damper on widely-viewed trending topics, but on the flipside, the service might help topics that would normally have trouble trending on a large scale now get noticed more easily. On another note, if you are hosting a chat or party, and see your hashtag ‘trending,’ check to make sure whether or not you have tailored trends turned on. You just might be ‘trending’ to a limited audience, rather than citywide, nationwide, or worldwide.

Tags: hashtag, tailored trends, trending topic, Twitter, twitter chat, Twitter party

By now, everyone has heard of Pinterest, even though not everyone can use (at the time of this writing, Pinterest is an invitation-only site. You can visit the Pinterest home page and request an invite. Or leave a comment on this blog post including your email, and we’ll try to send you one!)

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have loved Twitter.

He would have used it as another powerful means to inspire, mobilize and inform those in his movement on a level not possible during his time. In an age before text messaging, emails, blogs and Facebook, spreading a grassroots message often came in the form of phone calls, door-to-door visits, pulpits, and (if you were lucky) mentions on radio, t.v. or in the local paper. 

Some say that the Civil Rights Movement might not have progressed the way it did if it weren’t for images of protest and violence being broadcast via television. But if the internet and social media had existed in the mid-20th century, it could have taken the movement to the next level by increasing awareness, providing a forum for discussion and debate, coordinating and organizing events, and sharing people’s personal thoughts and experiences with the world. Social media could have injected the Civil Rights Movement with a high-level, virtual octane.

There’s a debate going on about the role Twitter has played in the Tunisian uprising. Some are even going as far as calling it the first “Twitter Revolution.” Others argue that Twitter didn’t cause a revolution, the Tunisian people did. However, there’s no doubt that Twitter has played a role in helping spread news and images about the goings-on in the African country. Twitter can put power in the hands of people who might be restricted by regimes that try to prevent them from having any.

And perhaps that’s the difference. Before social media, we had to rely on the professionals to disseminate news: print and broadcast journalists, photojournalists, wire services, writers. But in the internet age, anyone can disseminate news quickly and easily and without a lengthy resume: just take a pic with your phone, upload a photo, add a caption, and you just might have the next ‘tweet seen around the world.’ Or the tweet that might convince the world that your world desperately needs help or change.

Since I joined Twitter & Facebook for personal use in 2009, I have felt that those who use social media are an informed, socially conscious, aware, philanthropic group. Tweet an important cause-a bit of vital breaking news, a plea for help for a good cause, a newsworthy story-and watch it get retweeted more than your average post. Even Twitter itself has said that it sees itself not as a social network but more of a news and information network. We saw so many tweets from ‘regular people’ in Iran, in the southern U.S. during the Gulf Oil spill, in Haiti. We saw many photos that we might not have seen had ‘regular, non-news people’ not had the courage or ability to send them. 

Though some have criticized Twitter and Facebook as being ‘flashes in the pan’ that might not exist in a decade, if not those two, then something will take their place. We are all connected now, and now that we have it, that desire for connectivity won’t just disappear. People use social media to feel that they are a part of something larger than themselves: a group of friends, a shared interest or opinion, a cause, a movement, a moment in time. It’s up to those who use Twitter to advance their causes to figure out how to get our attention and get us to act.

Tags: Social Change, social media, Tunisia, Twitter Revolution

Drive past your local forest preserve or recreational area and you probably see just that: a nice place to spend the day, have a picnic, fly a kite. But what if it contained hidden treasure for you and your family to find?

Our first cache found...in a tree!

There’s an activity my family and I tried for the first time this past weekend that we all fell in love with. It’s called Geocaching and it’s something many of us can do just minutes from home. To summarize, Geocaching a treasure/scavenger hunt where you are given coordinates for where a ‘treasure’ is hidden (usually hidden at a park or other public space).  All you need is a GPS device (a smart phone will work—we used our Garmin) and a free account from Geocaching.com. Here’s how it works:

• Go to the Geocaching website and sign up for a free account. You’ll have to come up with a team name (get the whole family involved on brainstorming-think of something fun that defines your entire group)
• Once you have an account, enter your zip code to locate a list of Geocaching sites near you.
• Decide upon a cache you would like to find and enter the coordinates in your GPS device. Then head to your destination!
• Work as a team to find the cache (which is a small box or container). The caches are usually hidden from view so when you arrive at your coordinates, you might have to search a little (we found our first one in a tree!) And remember…most of the fun comes in the journey itself: working together as a family to find the cache!
• Once you find the cache, open it up, and see what you’ve found! Usually the cache includes trinkets left by other Geocache teams (we found stickers, small figurines, tickets, wood coins, and other small mementos). If you take something, remember to put something back of your own of greater or equal value.
• Sign the log book included in the cache. Write in your team name, date and time and any comments about your experience.
• Once home, log on to Geocaching.com to record your team’s experience. You can even upload photos and share other details of your journey.

Geocaching can be done by anyone—couples, friends, groups or scouting troops. I think that it can be a great activity for families. My husband and I loved the experience and our 3-year-old who wasn’t sure about the whole thing when we started didn’t want to leave!

A three-year-old's treasure

We found two caches this weekend, both of about the same level of difficulty (easy ones for us first-timers). On Geocaching.com, the caches are given a ‘level of difficulty’ rating so you can start out easy and take part in more difficult hunts as you and your family gain experience.

Who hides the caches? Anyone can! I suspect my family and I will sooner or later. There are people taking part in geocaching all over the world. According to Geocaching.com, as of today there are 1,211,988 active caches and an estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide. Their site is full of geocaching info, including how-to videos and GPS resources. Before we went, we input in our zip code on the home page and were surprised to find so many caches hidden just a short drive from our home.

Here are some additional tips that we learned from our first time out:

• Wear long pants. You never know what brush or terrain you might need to walk through to get to your cache site.
• Bring a bag. Our pockets were loaded down with our GPS, camera, and trinkets to place inside the cache once found. It would have been much easier to have one of our members carry a backpack.
• Wear comfortable shoes. Preferably hiking boots or something similar.
• Bring water. Always a good idea on a day spent outdoors. Especially with kids in tow. Snacks might be helpful too.
• Bring a pen. Just in case the one in the cache with the log book doesn’t work anymore. It would be a shame not to be able to sign it once found!

So if your family needs a little together time and an activity that won’t break the bank, visit Geocaching today! My family and I—er, I mean, my awesome cache-finding team—can’t wait for our next cache-hunting adventure!

Tags: family fun, free activities, Garmin, Geocaching, GPS, treasure hunt

We all know how it goes: computers freeze, internet connections get lost, Twitter ‘fail whales’ appear. It’s part of life for us techies, right? I’m all-too-used to backing up files on a zillion different devices just in case (one, in an extreme display of geekiness, I even wore around my neck on my way home from work-a flash drive on a rope). Of having backup battery packs positioned at every outlet to keep computers running, just in case the power goes out. Let’s just say that—like any good infielder—I have my bases covered.

As a Twitter party host, none of the party attendees can actually see me, which makes me feel sort of Wizard-of-Oz-ish. So let me give you a little behind-the-scenes peek into last night’s hosting gig. In summary: when the going got tough, I learned to keep going…and laugh.

You see, last night I was set to host the online launch of TweeParties, Inc. I won’t lie to you: I’m in Chicago, but I’m not doing this from the glamourous confines of say, the Sears (er, sorry, I mean Willis) Tower. While I do have an office space (basically an oversized, windowless closet a family member has generously donated to my cause), I was to host this party from home. My real boss (insert preschooler here) insisted upon it.

So….the night before the party, working hard at one a.m….Where’d the internet go? Um….hello? Anyone there? Nope. No one was. Just a browser with a “cannot connect” message staring me in the face. I panicked. But tomorrow’s the party!?! Where will I go? What will I do? After fretting until 2:30 a.m., my connection reappeared. A scheduled (albiet unannounced) outtage by my ISP. Phew. Onward and upward (I hoped)!

After three luxurious hours of sleep with fingers crossed, I’m off to my day job. I get a call from my hubby near the end of the afternoon:

“Um, hun? The backup UPS battery is dead.”

Today, of all days. No time to get a new one. Instead, ‘Hi ho! Hi ho! It’s plugged into a flimsy powerstrip we go!’ After brief analysis, I decide that now is the time to pray.

Then my backup internet connection (satellite) decided to, well…disappear too. My ISP asked if perhaps, I am too rural. “Um, I can see your store from my house.” Oh.

I could set up a time to bring in my laptop for a diagnostic. Tomorrow. Of course.

I decide it’s time for…what else? More prayer! But would God listen to the pleas of a Twitter party host praying for a sustained internet connection? I felt guilty for taking up His time. I prayed again, but this time for forgiveness.

Despite all of this, just minutes before the party, I’m at my desktop, all set to host. Both computers are up. The internet is working on each (one cable connection, one WiFi). I say another prayer (and another one, again to counter the first one).

Hopeful and eager, I log into Twitter. I suddenly find I have…no followers. And no one is following me. And Tweet Grid is bogged down by other parties. Two minutes to go. As Mary Poppins blares on the t.v. in the other room, I think, Poppins-esque: ‘Spit-spot! Spit-spot!’

So I get to work. I keep trying to tweet, but I’m met with errors. It’s showtime and I can’t get the show started. It’s like an actor’s worst nightmare: curtain goes up to a packed house, spotlight blinding and…he opens his mouth but nothing comes out. The patrons throw their tickets in the air and demand their money back.

But suddenly, after repeatedly hitting ‘send’ to no avail—my tweet makes it out into the Twittersphere. It’s just after 9:00 here in the Chicagoland wilderness. The aggregators pick up pace. Before long, follower counts are restored. My computers keep running; the internet stays connected; and all is well. From the small confines of my home office, the party soars! TweeParties is launched. The show does indeed go on.

So now I’ll schedule that diagnostic and uncross all of my fingers. At least until the next party.

Tags: humor, twitter party hosting

Remember “Friends?” The t.v. show centered around the lives of Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Chandler & Monica—six best buds who would gather at the “Central Perk” coffee shop on a daily basis to commiserate about twentysomething life in urban America. If set in 2010 NYC, there’s no doubt these friends would be hooked on Foursquare.

If you are part of a business that people can physically walk into—be it a dining establishment, a bar, a clothing store or sporting venue—you should claim your establishment and actively participate in Foursquare. Why? Just visit the Foursquare website and search for your biz. Chances are, people are already using Foursquare to “check in” to your venue. So what is Foursquare and what does this all mean? Here’s a quick overview:

Foursquare is a real-life game people play. It’s all done via the Foursquare web site or through various smart phone applications that work with and connect to Foursquare. Users sign up for a free Foursquare account, then “check in” to an establishment each time they visit it. The users then accrue points each time they check in, with the highest point earner becoming known as the “mayor” of that particular place. It becomes competitive amongst friends and regulars at a certain venue. It is also informative: friends can share tips about an establishment, and post their likes or dislikes about a venue with other friends and users. They can also see how many points a friend has earned, as well as where a friend has checked into recently.

But Foursquare goes beyond simply being a competition where the winners earn bragging rights. Users earn actual awards from businesses: special offers, discounts or freebies that they “unlock” once they check into an establishment. For example, a patron might check in at a restaurant and see that since this is their 10th check in, they’ve been rewarded with a free drink at the bar. A visitor to a clothing store might check in and see that the shop is offering all Foursquare participants 20% off on their purchases during their 5th visit. What better than to earn actual rewards for playing a game?

So why should a business get involved in all of this? First off, it’s free. Just visit Foursquare and claim your establishment. Then let the creativity begin. It’s a great way to engage people and make your brand part of the game. Keep people coming back for more by earning good reviews and giving out special offers and discounts. And remember to keep the “mayor” of your establishment happy. He or she may be your biggest fan and act as a vocal champion of your products and services on Foursquare for all other “players” to see and hear about.

Foursquare also makes it easy: it helps businesses easily develop their own specials for players to unlock, as well as gives companies marketing tools to promote their participation in Foursquare (such as a set of window clings). Businesses can also leverage their presence on Twitter and Facebook to promote their venue as Foursquare-friendly. Once a special is created, businesses can log onto Foursquare to track analytics and see how many visitors check in and used the special offer. As stated on the Foursquare site: “You’ll be surprised how effective a little friendly competition — over the Mayorship, over free fries! — is at driving customers back to your venue.”

No doubt if we could set their watches to the 21st Century, our “Friends” friends would get hooked on Foursquare. But the real question is: ‘Which one of them would be Central Perk’s mayor?’ Let the debates begin!

Tags: business tips, Foursquare, social media marketing

Earlier this week, the British woman billed as “the world’s oldest Twitter user”—Ivy Bean—died. She was 104.

Ms. Bean had been active on Twitter (with 53,000+ followers) and Facebook, often posting entries about her daily life and sometimes video. I’m not sure if she did all of this herself, or had help, but the fact that she wanted to become involved on both Twitter and Facebook really says something.

It’s a simple lesson—and an old one at that—but when it comes to technology, perhaps a new one:

You’re never too old to learn something new.

Social media is proving that it is, in fact, for everyone—not just for tech-savvy youth. It connects entire families and has gained popularity as a way for Grandma to see that picture of Junior that was taken five seconds ago at the park. One could easily argue that social media has made people feel more connected; geographically distant or even extended families and friends have a greater presence in each other’s lives if they can keep up with them in real or nearly real-time.

Ms. Bean was not raised on computers, video games, or cell phones. In fact, when she was born—in 1905—people weren’t even using telephones. But she was drawn to social media and by measuring the size of her following, people were drawn to her.

Research has shown that the demographics of social media users might be older than some first thought:  18-34 year olds comprise the largest group of U.S. users on Twitter and the 50+ demographic has nearly the same number of Twitter users as the 13-17 year old demographic (via Quantcast).

Whether they grew up with technology or not, people are using social media and becoming less intimidated by the technology. Once registered, people might find the learning curve to be lower than expected and they get hooked. Besides, who wants to miss an upload of Junior’s first solo attempt at the monkey bars? Not @Grandma.

Erin Boudreau

Tags: age, demographics, Facebook, Ivy Bean, Quantcast, social media, technology, Twitter, users