How has Twitter changed the social media landscape? Pretty dramatically. I'm not saying it's the quintessential social media tool, but it is a force that can be leveraged both by individuals and brands/companies.
GOOD & PLENTY candy was first produced by the Quaker City Confectionery Company in Philadelphia in 1893 and is the oldest branded candy in the United States. Choo Choo Charlie, the engineer who fueled his train with GOOD & PLENTY candy, first appeared in advertisements in 1950.
Do you remember the words to the Choo Choo Charlie GOOD & PLENTY candy theme song?
click to see Choo Choo Charlie GO!
Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used GOOD & PLENTY candy to make his train run.
Charlie says "Love my GOOD & PLENTY!"
Charlie says "Really rings my bell!"
Charlie says "Love my GOOD & PLENTY!"
Don't know any other candy that I love so well!
I'm a bit too young to remember Charlie, but I understand his love of having fun.
So Twitter is a social media tool that I love so well. I want to be thoughtful with my tweets. [Sometimes I get off track.] I want to provide value and not chatter. I want to be GOOD.
Occasionally I can be too PLENTY-ful. On two occasions I've had friends say, "Dude slow down with the tweets, you're killing my timeline." [an approximation of prior emails or tweets from two different friends]
Now, I didn't take offense when my pals sent me the slower and more refined missive. I tried to respond with something like: "He had an engine and he sure had fun/ He used GOOD & PLENTY candy to make his train run." But it probably came out more like, "UFM if you can't keep up." [UFM = Guy Kawasaki's answer to his critics who claim his ghosttweeters are killing the value of his tweets.]
So in an attempt to ever refine the PLENTY part of my stream, I have made a number of modifications to my tweet process over the last several months.
- Disconnect all auto or semi-auto tweet feeders. (Example: Blip.fm tweeting my song choices — "Hey look I'm a TweetJay!")
- Use twitter for informational distribution of valuable links or information. (If you follow me you are probably interested in social media, twitter theory, twitter humor or tech opinion. Hopefully those things make up 90% of my tweetstream.)
- Crash the parties of the tweet spammers. (I call a sales pitch a sales pitch. And if I am selling, I try and keep it to a single self-promotional tweet or two about a new post I've written or a new dialogue I'm having with @Omarg that I don't want you to miss.)
- Openly express my ideas and plans for Twitter Leadership. (I am constantly trying to Get Real with Twitter. Heck I'm writing a book, right here in front of you on the subject.)
So I may get it wrong sometimes. I may get into an on-twitter, open-to-the-stream disagreement with another tweeter. I may contradict myself. But what I will always do is Get Real. Here's what that means.
I will admit mistakes.
I will try and illuminate my own contradictions and span the gaps between them with logic, or destroy them myself.
I will continue to write about Twitter so that others may weigh in, newbies may learn, and old rivals will have a good target to open a dialogue. And I understand there will be challenges. There will be dissenters. There will be Mr. 50k-s out there that are hoppin mad when I make their product/process/tool part of the Twitter Joker's "Thats xXXin Funny Awards."
But I will not hide behind false pretense. I come right up front and tell you my point of view. I share openly about my life, my work, my worries, my joys. You can find me easily. My email and contact information is published right here at the source. So if you need to seek me out, you can find me. You can check me out. You can vet my credentials. You can hopefully find humor in what I am spouting.
Most of all I will continue to be a voice of REAL in the sea of TWEETS.
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/tweet-candy
You might also want to check out
and if i've confused you enough, check out what I'm doing over here:
- The SocialMediaNinja
- Fluent Search – WordPress, Search and Social Media
- SocialMedia Innovation Group – straight up consulting
- ReTweet Tweet Tweet – We Are What We Tweet: What Value Are You Giving Your Following?
Update 6-21-09 afternoon: I don't know who I followed, but I've just completed a round of Twitter Porn BLOCKS of folks that have added to my "following" total but not to my good rep. At least this one put the idea right up front.
Uh, yeah… UNFOLLOW!
