Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb on this one - but after a couple of months of using it, I’m hooked. And I can already see how it’ll be one of the top marketing tools I’m going to use moving forward:

Tool #5 - Twitter

I have known about Twitter since everyone was all atwitter (sorry, couldn’t resist) about it (way back in March or April of 2006) at one of the blogging conferences I was attending. It seems the social media geeks generally portend what the rest of us finally ‘get’ years later.

Why I’m enthusiastic about Twitter as a marketing/business tool?

1) I can get glimpses of the real lives of the people I’m following - which is important when you’re building virtual teams. And whether you’re a contractor working remotely, a geographically dispersed team working for the same company, or even a team with people on different floors, the more we stare into our little screens to get our work done, the more we need to find ways to get to know people from the little screen.

I know, for example, when someone is extremely busy - because their twitters go silent for awhile. Perhaps it’s time to check in with them?

2) I can pick up knowledge from others in a quick-hit fashion. I’ve learned a few gems in the short time I’ve been twittering, just by following other people’s tweets. And you can follow conference news from people who’re on site, twittering live - you get their impressions in the moment.  Blog posts follow, most people tweet their postings.

3) I’ve become more aware of my words. You can only use 140 characters to post in twitter… and that’s a great forcing mechanism to refine your writing.

The convention (for those of you who haven’t been there yet) is to acknowledge other’s tweets by saying something like @thiskat when I’m referring to something she has said.

So here’s a hint - don’t pick a long username like I did. @janetleejohnson is a ridiculous waste of 15! characters. Had I to do it all over again, I’d go under an assumed name like mktgmvn or smrtpdx or mrk8r… think in terms of license plate monikers, and you’re set.

Another hint - check out an URL shortner tool like twurl - which also allows you to track clicks…

Happy twittering…

My friend Tobey sent over a link to a site from The Netherlands that has the best use of Flash I’ve ever seen. It’s a treat - turn on your sound and check it out here - the HEMA online winkelen.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think Pete Blackshaw is great. I have from the moment I sat across the dinner table from him in Newark, NJ - at the end of a blogging and social media conference - and listened to him glow about his kids.

He’s smart, forward-thinking and his advice to businesses about consumer generated media (CGM) is extremely well-rooted in reality. So when he announced his 2008 forecast intentions on Facebook and asked for feedback from the CGM group, I’ve been looking forward to reading them.

They were published last week on ClickZ in the CMO section. As far as I’m concerned, anyone interested in “Web 2.0″ should read, learn and enjoy.

I had lunch with my friend Michael Krol today, who fixed my Mac email problems. He told me he’s been blogging about Mac OS for awhile, and solved a niggling problem for me that I didn’t even know I had…

My iPhone opened iPhoto every time I plugged it in… Michael published a fix here, which caught the attention of some Mac bloggers, and he’s received plenty of thanks in his comments.

He blogs about what he’s passionate about - things that make his development life easier. And it’s paying off nicely for the rest of us.

Even for those of us who don’t know a lick of code, there are gems at MichaelKrol.com.

Subscribed.

I’ve been talking about my email problems quite a bit - because I’m living in the hell of them… so in frustration with email; I’m going to use my blog and RSS to get the word out to at least some of my network:

I’ve got a client - Auctionpay - who needs a Director of Marketing Communications. Know of anyone?

They’re a growing software company in Portland, OR with a huge heart - the environment is excellent, the people are great, and the product is rock solid.

Primarily, they need someone who can build a team focused on delivering quality leads to a great group of telesales folks. Anyone with trusted, Portland-area candidates are welcome to send me an introduction and we’ll take it from here.

If this works as well as I hope (and suspect it will), I’m going to chock up yet another reason to subscribe to RSS feeds, use enterprise 2.0 collaboration tools like Attensa in the workplace and subscribe to my blog while you’re at it!

1. Write once/read many - saves the time and energy of another blast email to contacts for all of us.
2. Opt-in subscriber base offers highest quality connections - I’d assume (maybe I’m naive) that those who subscribe to my blog have some sort of heightened interest in my world.
3. Leading edge thinking - I’m looking for someone who knows a little about technology and social media; what better way to surface interest than to use the medium to deliver the message?

So another experiment is launched. Do I have any willing collaborators?