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Archive for the 'Twitter' Tag

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Why mobile food and Twitter is perfect recipe

November 15th, 2009, 12:00 pm by Jon Lansner

socialsundayplainsOCial sunday asks social media insiders for their wisdom! New-fangled mobile food trucks, powered by social media, has caught the fancy of Orange County marketer Justin-Moore Brown (@bigheadasian) of MoboMedia him …

We’ve all hear about them by now. The “Kogi Kulture” is now practically part of our vocabulary. Mobile food wagons serving up delicious food at all hours of the day, at different locations throughout the LA/OC area. These knights of the NomNom food developed a cult following by combining two key ingredients: Delicious, fresh food & Social Media (namely Twitter), and it has paid off for them in huge ways.

Here’s the top 5 reasons why we can’t get enough of them:

  • It’s a Kulture thing. Maybe it’s all the MTV or LOL catz, but kids these days love late night food runs. The teaser tweets of an upcoming location, the anticipation as you plot with your friends, the driving to random locations, the 45 minute wait … these are all things that whip mild-mannered tweeters into starving, crazy-eyed foodies.
  • Agile. Mobile. These restaurants on wheels know no boundaries. If there are hungry people to be found they will be there. Not bound by the brick-and-mortar of normal restaurants, these trucks can cover an entire city in one day, blanketing cities in that succulent smell and leaving in their wake hundreds of satisfied — and full — customers.
  • A truck for any appetite. At first it started out with Kogi (@kogibbq) and their Mexican/Korean Fusion cuisine. Now there are dozens of trucks serving up anything from Korean Japanese (Corrected 12:10 am 11/16) soul food (@itsbentobaby), to hot dogs (@letsbefrank), to good ol fashioned chicken and waffles (@buttermilktruck). But who are we kidding, all of these are DELICIOUS … so why not try them all! (check out this link to find all of your local food trucks: http://www.findlafoodtrucks.com/)
  • Great chefs. Fantastic marketers. Kogi BBQ has been reaching out to their customers and tweeting their locations for a year now. Their success has garnered them national attention. By engaging their customers, listening to where those hungry folks are, and providing fantastic food and service (they gave everybody free desert for being so patient when I went) it’s no wonder people drive miles just for one of their delicious tacos.
  • Not your typical roach coach. These trucks aren’t serving pre-made burritos wrapped in saran wrap. These trucks serve gourmet food, made to order, fusing textures and tastes — plus they serve them at a great value. Anybody within a 5-block radius can smell the delicious meats and foods grilling away. And the mile long lines speak for themselves.

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[ Social media tips by email? CLICK HERE! ]

Posted in: Social Media • • • • | 14 Comments »

Why would LinkedIn link up with Twitter?

November 15th, 2009, 9:31 am by Jon Lansner

sslinkedinLinkedIn, the social networking tool with a decidedly corporate edge, has crafted an alliance with pop culture’s Twitter that allows tweets to easily appear (by “hasthag,” for you tweeps!) on LinkedIn pages. sOCial sunday wondered why, so we “twinterviewed” Neal Schaffer (@nealschaffer) — Orange County social media strategist and author of the new book, “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn” As can happen with Twitter interviews, the public chimed in. Here’s an lightly edited transcript …

Us: yo @NealSchaffer. Twitter and LinkedIn hook up http://j.mp/ZJQk. what do u think?
Neal: @jonlan Twitter positioning themselves as a professional site, LinkedIn wanting to gain more traction, perfect match to combat Facebook, no?
Us: @NealSchaffer Isn’t LinkedIn the “professional site” … so will this make it less so?
Neal: @jonlan People updating LinkedIn w/ every Tweet already using Ping.fm. LinkedIn tie up will accelerate Twitter becoming professional app.

@TopBrokerOC … @NealSchaffer Still not sure that I want all my tweets on my LinkedIn profile……maybe I am missing something. @jonlan
Neal: @jonlan Companies are already using both LinkedIn and Twitter for many reasons, so this announcement is probably only the beginning…
Neal: @jonlan And over time professionals become more savvy with Twitter, so it allows them to share dynamic information with LinkedIn network.
@topbrokeroc … @NealSchaffer Still not sure that I want all my tweets on my LinkedIn profile……maybe I am missing something. @jonlan
@cfleury … Heck Yeah! @NealSchaffer: @TopBrokerOC @jonlan …a tweet w/ certain hashtag can be integrated into another web app is significant, no?
Neal: @jonlan I think it’s a total win-win…but I’d like to see LinkedIn give us the option of turning OFF status update of people who abuse it!
Neal: @TopBrokerOC @jonlan No need to put your tweets on your LinkedIn profile if you don’t want to…I don’t either. But it opens up potential.
Neal: @TopBrokerOC @jonlan The fact that a tweet w/ certain hashtag can now be integrated into another web application is pretty significant, no?
Neal: @cfleury The Twitter hashtag integration with web apps. potential is EXTREMELY significant for corporations as you can imagine!

Us: @NealSchaffer Hashtag-2-app is pretty cool … certainaly a threat 2 the aggregators! But would it hur t LinkedIn’s high gloss?
Neal: @jonlan I agree w/ @Mashable’s view on potential for business intelligence: http://bit.ly/4DIHcD
Us: Hmmn! @Mashable guesses Twitter could “provide real-time updates from CEOs, employees of companies on LinkedIn.”
Neal: @jonlan Yes, Twitter gains by becoming a professional platform to compete with FB/FriendFeed.
Neal: @jonlan It’s all very futursitic but the potential is there. For the short-term I really don’t see much of a huge affect to be honest.

READ Neal’s full take on this alliance at HIS BLOG HERE!

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[ Social media tips by email? CLICK HERE! ]

Posted in: Top tale • • • | 2 Comments »

Why 91 Freeway got a Twitter voice

November 8th, 2009, 12:00 pm by Jon Lansner

Social Sunday, TwitterOrange County Transportation Authority last week officially began a construction project to widen nearly 6 miles of the eastbound 91 Riverside Freeway – a chronic traffic bottleneck –  from Anaheim to Corona. OCTA’s communication strategy includes a healthy dose of social media, especially Twitter. We asked OCTA’s Ted Nguyen (@tednguyen) to explain why the 91 gets its own @91fwy Twitter account, and more ..

  • HOW? The new @91fwy Twitter account comes directly from Fernando Chavarria, OCTA’s community relations officer, who provides the public with firsthand knowledge and up-to-the-minute construction updates. He will tweet the widening project’s progress – and its impact – so the public can be in-the-know before they go.
  • ALSO: The groundbreaking event was OCTA’s first to utilize social media to share instant information via Twitter and Facebook. Orange County social media practioners joined TV, radio and print journalists in covering the start of construction for the freeway. Orange County’s social media community provided live tweets of the groundbreaking by videotaping and conducting interviews as the event was happening. Tweets from the event reached more than 20,000 people with approximately 194,000 impressions or views. That’s a lot of eye balls online without the associated costs of traditional advertising. Social media is providing impressive cost-effective results for OCTA.
  • GOAL: All questions about the project will be addressed. And we will listen to all vents about the freeway. It’s about being there to listen.
  • WHY? @91fwy will help enhance OCTA’s public involvement program to help us listen to the public and address questions and issues as they are posted. Social media along with traditional outreach strengthens OCTA’s ability to communicate with stakeholders to provide the information they need.
  • If you’re not familiar with Twitter you can follow this 91 news stream at http://twitter.com/91fwy without having a Twitter account!

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    [ Social media tips by email? CLICK HERE! ]

    Posted in: Social Media • Top tale • • | 2 Comments »

    Learning Twitter, Hollywood style

    November 1st, 2009, 10:10 am by Jon Lansner

    Social Sunday, TwitterHere’s some noteworthy thoughts gleaned from the “#140conf” — a Twitter fest dubbed “Exploring the State of Now” — last week at Hollywood’s Kodak Theater …

    What actress Mariel Hemmingway said …

    • On Twitter she tries to share the parts of her life that fits her business persona (health and wellness)
    • Twitter is about being yourself. Intimate way to connect with public.

    Other bits of wisdowm …

    • Richard Rushfiled (@richardrushfield) of Gawker says that celebs can now comment thru social media; so traditional media chases those streams.
    • Marketer Neal Rohrbach (@nrohrbach) says nothing worse than Twitter spam. Build trust with your audience first.
    • Linen service operator @unitedlinen says Twitter lets 73-year-old business hear what its clients need. Example: Added hand sanitizer to its product line.
    • Small business consultant Kim Fenolio (@kfenolio) says you never know what results Twitter will deliver for small business
    • Filmmaker Siok Siok (@sioksiok) is making her ‘twittamentary.com’ with content suggestions for her Twitter followers.
    • USC prof Andrew Lih (@fuzheado) says major earthquake gave Twitter big popularity push in China. Twitter is now blocked there by government.

    As for real-time photos on Twitter …

    • What is an inappropriate photo and how to filter for those images? No easy answers found yet!
    • TweetPhoto’s Rodney Rumford @rumford says photo tweets say far more than 140-character text messages.

    What’s next?

    • Marketer Robert Scoble (@scobelizer) likes tweetmeme.com to track popular tweets #140conf
    • Mark Milian @mmilian hates email and wonders if Google Wave will cure his stuffed email inbox!

    And a highlight, for me, was …

    Cancer survivor Drew Olanoff (@drew) mocking the odd nature of social media where few people talk. He told the crowd of a hot iPhone app: THE PHONE! (”instant audio link”) … And urged people to call a loved one!

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    [ Social media tips by email? CLICK HERE! ]

    Posted in: Social Media • Top tale • • • | Post a Comment »

    Guy Kawasaki: Spamming Twitter is O.K.

    October 11th, 2009, 11:00 am by Jon Lansner

    Guy Kawasaki — the technology guru — had some interesting things to say on a recent visit to Orange County to speak at the “VC in the OC” conference. Register reporter Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) quoted Kawasaki suggesting to the audience a business strategy that many on Twitter would consider bad manners — or “spam” …

    • “Not everybody in the Twitter world agrees with the way I use Twitter. I use it for unintended purposes.”
    • “Other than perhaps the NSA (the National Security Agency,) there is no better way to monitor what people are saying in the world.”
    • Repost the same thing multiple times perhaps eight or 12 hours apart because it’s likely not everybody saw it the first time. Kawasaki says to ignore those on Twitter who’d hate that tactic: “If you aren’t pissing someone off on Twitter … You’re not doing it right.”

    Hamilton’s full report IS HERE!

    Posted in: Social Media • • | 1 Comment »

    Twitter is a great news hub

    October 4th, 2009, 9:44 am by Jon Lansner

    Social Sunday, TwitterYou can’t seem to aborsb enough about Twitter. Recently, local officials of government and not-for-profit agencies gathered for “Gov 2.0″ — a discussion about social media practices hosted by the Orange County Transportation Authority. sOCial sunday asked attendees to share some of what they learned.

    Here’s the Twitter wisdom that Melissa Seifen of Anaheim Public Utilities gleaned from a Twitter classes taught by Marisa O’Neil (@OCMarisa).

    1. Engage by following others so you know what they are interested in.
    2. “Hashtags” (# plus keyword) can help you search specific keyword or get your word out to those interested.
    3. It is a great resource to use as a central hub for news – all in one place.
    4. Use Twitter has a monitoring source.

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    [ Social media tips by email? CLICK HERE! ]

    Posted in: Social Media • • | 1 Comment »

    Why your Twitter background looks stinky

    September 27th, 2009, 9:30 am by Jon Lansner

    Social Sunday, TwitterHow do you get one of those fancy Twitter backgrounds? And why do they occasionally look funny? We ask blogger/technology coach Loren Nason (@lorennason) of Future of Real Estate Technology and Yorba Linda - Land of Gracious Living to explain …

    Setting a background is easy.

    • Log into your account and then click on “Settings” in the menu at the top right.
    • Now click on the “Design” tab where you can set your background. You can choose from 16 backgrounds that Twitter supplies. Or you can upload your own.
    • To upload your own just click on the link/button that say “Change background image” and then you get a button that you click on to choose the file you want to upload from your computer.
    • (Note: You are only allowed to upload a GIF, JPG, PNG and cannot be any bigger than 800k file size.)

    That’s the easy part.

    The difficult part is trying to create the layout of your background so that it looks good on almost all screens.  The reason why you have to be concerned about the layout of your background is because people run different resolutions on their monitors.  If someone is running 1024×768 they are going to see almost nothing of your background. If someone else is running 1920×1200 then they will see it all.

    • So what should size should your background picture be?
    • To start make a file that is 1920×1200 and that will fill almost all screens out there.

    If you want to avoid the resolution problem all together then you can pick a small image; upload it; then specify to “tile” the image. Example: Look at Jon Lansner’s Twitter background at @jonlan!

    Next week I will provide a template for Photoshop that you can use as a guide to create your background.

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    Posted in: Social Media • • | 2 Comments »

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