Archive for Twitter
Lifting a Dreamer
Posted by: | CommentsThe original name of the Twitter Fail Whale designed by artist YiYing Lu was Lifting a Dreamer. I find that name very appropriate after this past weekend spent with my Twitter friends @brainmaker (aka @emerald150) and @charleegee.
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post titled Twitter is magical. This past weekend was magical because of Twitter!
A few weeks ago, I received a DM (private direct message on Twitter) from my friend Suzanna (who I met thanks to Twitter) that said “Crazy short notice, but C & I fly plane to Baja March 1, & have 2 seats available. Thought of you and your C. 4 days, amazing trip. Wanna go?”
My response was “Seriously?”.
My gut response was “Hell yeah!” But my practical side knew I needed to get more info. (Typos happen on Twitter)
It all happened so fast, within 24 hours I had exchanged several emails with Suzanna and Charley, scanned a copy of our passports, arranged for a dog sitter, and scheduled the time off work. I learned we were going to have the opportunity to hug a whale!
The whole trip was very exciting. We were scheduled to depart on Thursday, March 1st at 8am. Unfortunately, the night before a big storm came in and we were forced to postpone (almost cancel) the trip for a day. Celia and I scrambled to reschedule meetings, notify work, etc and were able to make it happen. Friday, we all arrived at Gnoss airport in Novato (a teeny tiny airport I did not even know existed in Marin County), we pulled our bags out of our car and put them in the small plan, parked our car in the hanger, climbed in the plane, a 1968 Beechcraft Bonanza (which kind of reminded me of flying in a 1968 VW Beetle with wings) and took off.
Two and half to three hours later we landed in Mexicali, a VERY windy landing, but expert pilot @CharleeGee did an awesome job! I felt totally safe in Charley’s flying hands.
We happily visited the toilet, filed all the required paperwork, visas, etc. and then got back in the plane to head to Hotel Serenidad inMulege.
Hotel Serenidad has airplane parking! How cool is that?!
Day 2: the day we were supposed to go visit the whales got postponed due to HIGH winds. So we headed to the town of Mulege to check out the scene where we happened upon the most gorgeous bougainvillea plant EVER! It just happened to match my top.
Day 3: While drinking Margaritas on night 2 we all prayed to the wind god and goddesses to please calm the wind (at least I did). Woke up early on Day 3 to discover CALM beautiful weather. Woohoo! Whale time! We hopped on the plane and headed to Laguna San Ignacio, Baja Calif Sur, Mexico to visit the whales!
Chris and Lisa flying next to us on our way to see the whales!
Here are all the pictures you’ve been waiting for.
Six of us set off on a 2 hour tour to see the whales accompanied by Max the panga driver and whale charmer. Photo taken by our new friend Chris. Chris (pilot friend of Charley’s) and his wife Lisa were awesome traveling companions. We really enjoyed spending time with our crew of 6. I can not even begin to tell you how grateful I am to Suzanna and Charley for giving us this amazing opportunity.
Celia and Charley petting the whale. I really had no idea what to expect but I certainly did not expect the whales to come right up to the boat and say hi. What impressed me the most was how incredibly quiet, gentle and graceful these creatures are. You wouldn’t even know they were 2 inches away from you until their heads popped up out of the water. The boat didn’t even rock slightly when they swam under, around or next to it. These are truly gentle giants.
The whales made sure to say hello to each one of us. Here is Chris saying hi to the whale. Right after I snapped this photo the whaled popped up and gave Chris a gentle kiss.
I was lucky enough to get to give the whale a quick hug.
Mama whale showed us her baby and nudged baby to come up and say hi to us.
Chris got this photo of the whale giving Suzanna a kiss. Too bad I’m blocking the view of Suzanna.
Here’s another shot of Suzanna & the whale kissing.
Lisa loving the whale. I think the feeling was mutual, they kept coming back to her.
My favorite picture of all! Charley and Suzanna with the whale.
Thank you Suzanna & Charley for offering us such an awe inspiring experience and adventure and for lifting us dreamers in to the sky so we could land and see these beautiful, graceful creatures!
Definitely not a Fail Whale.
Calling All Marin Restaurants
Posted by: | CommentsDear Marin County Restaurants:
I am trying to decide where to plan the next TweetUp. Please help me make this decision. This is a GREAT opportunity for a local Marin restaurant to get new customers and lots of exposure. Please pass this information on to all your restaurant friends.
What does a TweetUp mean for my business?
It means I will be talking about YOUR business online to my thousands of friends, fans and followers and many of them will also start talking about YOUR business to their friends, fans and followers. (Lots of local exposure for your business.) It also means 20 – 50 (or maybe more, you never know) people will show up at your business ready to spend money. $$$ They will buy drinks, food and they will talk about YOUR restaurant to all their friends, family and followers.
A little Twitter birdy told me the media (ie. The Marin Magazine!) shhh don’t tell anyone 
will be attending the next TweetUp. They will be taking pictures and introducing our community to the world, which means YOUR restaurant will likely be introduced to the world via the prestigious Marin Magazine.
When the Marin Twitter Community comes to your business it is not a one time thing. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. When we decide we love a business we support that business, we go there often, we introduce our friends to it and we talk about it on Twitter, FourSquare, Facebook, Google+, Path, Yelp, YouTube, our blogs and anywhere else people will listen to us. (We like to talk.)
If you are interested in being THE restaurant to host this next fabulous TweetUp please contact me and convince me as to why we should do it at your restaurant. Maybe you want to offer us a free appetizer or a drink. Maybe you want to purchase a month or 2 of advertising on my blog —-> see the ads over there (I offer very reasonable rates), maybe you want to give us gift cards to thank us for all the promotions, perhaps you want to donate a percentage of the profits to a worthy cause, be creative. Give us an incentive or at least a thank you for shouting about your business to the world and for bringing paying customers and the media in to your business.
If you are interested in being the next restaurant TweetUp destination, please contact me and give me a reason to coordinate this.
If we have already had a TweetUp at your restaurant, we are open to coming back – just give us a reason.
I look forward to hearing from you! Please fill out the form below, send me a tweet or email me at sally @ sallyaroundthebay.com
Thanks!
PS. Join The Marin TweetUp Community to hear about upcoming TweetUps.
Thank you for passing this information on to the local restaurants in Marin.
For more information on TweetUps see past blog post: What is a TweetUp?
Social Media Overwhelm
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I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with life. In particular I’m feeling overwhelmed with social media. Ever since Google+ arrived on the scene… I have felt pulled in 3 directions. Then Facebook started messing with our privacy to the point where even I’m feeling a bit invaded, and I am not a very private person. I’m barely able to keep up with my @ messages on Twitter which means half the time I miss reading my friends tweets. My DM (direct message) column is filled with unwanted promotional and spammy messages and I sometimes miss real DMs. I even forgot to check my personal email sometimes.
Earlier today I announced on Twitter that I was doing a little Twitter experiment. Well that experiment is that I’m totally going to copy Chris Brogan and do a Great Twitter UnFollow. I’m in the process of unfollowing most of the 5000 people/businesses that I’m currently following and am just keep the handful that I actually interact with.
I used to believe it was rude to not follow back everyone who follows you but that was 2 years ago. I’m now starting to think it is rude to follow everyone who follows you. If you follow everyone it drowns out the people who are most important to you. So, I’m trying this little experiment. Please don’t take it personally if I have unfollowed you. If you start a conversation with me using an @ I’ll most likely follow you back because I’ll know you are a real person interested in real conversations. Many people are on the lists I’ve created so technically I am still following them, but only when I look at my lists.
I know for me personally when I find out someone has unfollowed me it stings a little. Then I remember we’re all busy and everyone needs to make decisions on what information they’re going to allow in to their overcrowded information garden.
Already I’m seeing interesting tweets from people I’d been missing. I look forward to discovering and rediscovering new tweeps now that I can actually see what is going on in my Twitter stream. I’m changing my Tweet stream from the autobahn in Germany to Highway 1 in Marin, making it a little slower and easier to handle.
*disclaimer: I sort of went on an unfollow rampage today so I may have unintentionally unfollowed someone I meant to be following. I’ve already unfollowed about 2000 people, I will continue my great unfollow over the next week. I’ll let you know in a few weeks if this crazy idea has reduced the feeling of overwhelm or caused more stress.
Watch out Facebook you’re next!
How to Use Social Media for Restaurants
Posted by: | CommentsSocial Media for Restaurants
By Guest Blogger: Bethany North
As a restaurant in a local area, you may have a difficult time making your mark if you are competing with the big chains out there. Even if you do happen to be a big chain restaurant, there is no such thing as too many customers, which is why it is important to make social media work for you as a restaurant, whether you are big or small.
- Facebook: Start out by setting up a Facebook account so that you can keep people updated about events in your restaurant, specials, discounts, and even happy hour. This is the best way to get people involved because they do want to know what is going on locally, but they don’t want to have to search for it. The way that this works is that your friends will friend your Facebook page for your restaurant, which will in turn be quickly circulated to their social circles. Genius.
- Submit to Directories: Whether you submit to a paid or free directory, directories are a big deal when it comes to social media. This is where people go for local reviews and information, so if you don’t take the time to submit your restaurant, you may be overlooked in favor of your competitors.
- Twitter: Twitter will work the same way as Facebook where people can follow you to find out the latest happenings when it comes to your restaurant. This is the quickest way to tell people to make reservations in time for Mother’s Day, about your new menu for Valentine’s Day, or anything of the like.
- Encourage Your Customers to Visit You Online: After you have set up all of your social media profiles for your restaurant, don’t stop there! You must include your Facebook page and Twitter profile on your restaurant business cards or website so that people are encouraged to follow you. If they don’t know that you have social media profiles, they won’t search for you. However, if you are easy to find online, you better believe that people will follow you to stay aware of your happenings and come in as potential customers.
Social media is much simpler than it seems for a restaurant, but you do need to put yourself out there so that your customer base can find you online!
Check out guest blogger Bethany North’s Website for a great selection of Pasquini Livia 90 at The Coffee Bump!
Top 10 Tips for an Effective Twitter Profile
Posted by: | CommentsPlease welcome guest blogger Phyllis Zimbler Miller.
The purpose of the brief Twitter profile is to encourage people to follow you or to follow back if you have followed the person first.
What’s the most important tip for having an effective Twitter profile? Make it easy to read and make it interesting.
Let’s break this down into 10 specific tips:
- Put your real name in the field that says name and make sure to put a space between your first and last name so that you are more easily searchable on Twitter. Also, it looks better to capitalize the first letter of your first and last name.
- It’s preferable NOT to use _ in your Twitter username. But do use capitalization when you create your username. (People can type lowercase and still get you.) It is easier to read, for example, @ZimblerMiller than @zimblermiller
(@Sally_K learned this the hard way) - Write something in first person in the 160-character limit for the bio and make this something of interest that would encourage people to connect with you. Not only (as I just saw) “Is tweeter a word?”
- Because very little of the one hot link shows in the Twitter profile, check that your link will work without the www. and, again, capitalize the first letter of each word in your URL to make it easier to read. (FYI – If you don’t have your own website or blog, link to your Facebook business page or your LinkedIn profile.)
- In terms of which one link you use – on Twitter it is considered good etiquette to make connections first and only then present your offers (read “sales pitches”) so consider using the URL to your blog if you have one rather than the URL to your website where your products or services are sold.
- Use a headshot of yourself rather than a company logo even if you are head of a company with lots of employees. People like to connect with real people. And make it a headshot without sunglasses or a hat covering your eyes. Plus a smile is always a good idea.
- Please, please, please follow this piece of advice: Do NOT choose a dark color for your profile sidebar. In almost all cases it is impossible to read the bio info against the dark color. I don’t even bother to try – I don’t follow that person back.
- Do tweet one or two interesting tweets before you start following people. Use this as an opportunity to let people know a little more about you than what you have in the bio. Do NOT make these first tweets selling pitches.
- Do make changes in the standard Twitter profile background. You do not need to spend money on getting a customized background. But do at least change colors (except for NO dark sidebar color) and do a little tweaking so that you don’t have the standard Twitter background that screams “newbie.”
- Do share valuable information in your tweets through links to blog posts (yours and others) to demonstrate that you are a committed Twitter participant.
And if you find yourself spending too much time on Twitter, here’s a tip I learned from someone else: Set an alarm clock to remind yourself when your allotted time for Twitter is over.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. For social media marketing info see the company’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/powermarketing
Things to do while you wait for your Twitter followers count to return
Posted by: | CommentsThere was a glitch on Twitter today and many of our accounts were saying we were following 0 people and had 0 followers.
Please don’t panic I’m confident the fabulous people at Twitter are fixing the problem as I type.
In lieu of panicking or staring blankly at your Twitter screen how about:
- Getting some work done – you know you are procrastinating on something
- Calling mom and telling her sorry you forgot to call her yesterday (Mother’s Day)
- Folding the laundry
- Catching up on emails
- Returning calls
- Following up with potential clients
- Checking your Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
- you get the point
Wishing you a fun and productive Monday!
Twitter 101 for restaurants (also known as common courtesy)
Posted by: | Comments- Follow back those who follow you
- If someone says something nice about your restaurant on Twitter, thank them
- If someone is unhappy with your business, contact them and make it right
- Be part of the community – participate in the conversations
Twitter as a Marketing Weapon
Posted by: | CommentsThe social media success summit began last night with Guy Kawasaki, the co-founder of Alltop as the keynote speaker. Over the years I have attended tons of webinars, this is the first one that started off running. Usually in webinars we sit around for 5-10 minutes while the organizers fiddle with the technology, then the host talks about how fabulous he or she is, then maybe they get in to the content but not Guy. This webinar started and boom the information was coming fast and furious. At first I couldn’t keep up with all the juicy tid bits of information he was sharing. Here’s a few I caught:
- Guy said if the first time you used Twitter you thought it was wonderful you probably flunked the IQ test. Your initial reaction should be wow what is this crap?
- He shared a common sense suggestion I think we all need to be reminded of: if you want more followers you need to tweet useful or interesting info for your followers. For instance, “tweet out interesting links”.
- Retweeterati on Alltop lists the top 100 re-tweeted people on Twitter. The kind of people you might want to follow to see what they are doing.
How do I know when someone unfollows me on Twitter?
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Do you want to know who has stopped following you on Twitter? Ever wonder which tweet made someone decide to unfollow you?
Well now you can find out! You can use Qwitter to “catch your Twitter quitters”. If you were not already neurotic this program will make you neurotic. You will receive an email saying @TwitterUser stopped following you after this tweet.
Ouch! I received about 20 unfollows yesterday after my FourSquare update saying I was hiking. Maybe I should take the hint that not all of my Twitter followers care about my FourSquare updates…
Thanks @CrystalPina for telling me about this program. (I think).
