Today I wanted to continue in Twitter and I came across a wonderful blog called problogger.net. In this blog post he talked about many ways your twitter account can work for you (or your blog) but I thought he made so many great points that I wanted to share a link to his blog.

"Learn that Every Tweet Counts
This is another thing that I speak about when it comes to blogging that also applies to Twitter. Every time you publish something on your Twitter account (or Blog) you can potentially improve or hurt your reputation, brand and profile. This is an important lesson to learn – particularly for Twitter where it’s so easy to post something out of anger, in a drunken moment or that could hurt your reputation in some way. Sure posting in this way can add ’spice’ to your Twittering – but it can also hurt your reputation."

To read the rest of the post click HERE

Twitter Week Part 2

Now that you have your account and can tweet there are a couple of simple things you should know to help you through the process.

First, this will seem very foreign at first and you will have trouble finding the right people to follow. It took me a well over a month to find the right mix of people to follow and I am constantly tweaking who I follow. I started following news organizations and found that to be too much. They tweet everything including much news I didn’t care about in an hour I would get over 20 tweets from some of them. That was just too much for me but maybe that’s just what you want. There is no right or wrong way to pick who to follow. I have a mix of friends, businesses, and celebrities.

The next thing you need to know is how to link in the Twitter world. You can put a # in front of a word or series of words and then anyone who sees that can click that word and it will show them everyone that used that same # and word combination. It would be like searching for a word.

The other is the @ sign. That will link you to other users. So if you wanted to talk about me you could say @JaredNeff and then someone could click on that and it would take them to me or people that write to me. Again the symbol makes that word that follows a link.

The last tip is with web links. Because you may only use 140 characters typing in a long ink will take up too much of your characters. So I recommend using a link shortening site like bit.ly. This site will shorten the link for you and let you know how many people click on it.

More tips to follow later in the week. Leave comments or your twitter tips in the comments section.

Twitter Week Begins

Over the last couple of months more than a few people have asked me about Twitter and how to use it, so I am going to dedicate, for the most part, this week to Twitter. Someone said to me recently that Twitter gets more hype than actual users. That may be true, but only time will tell. I think the same was said about Facebook in its first couple of years, and as a business person you would think being connected to your audience, whoever they are, will be important. Having another way of reaching them is also important.

First, you have to set up an actual account. It is easy and takes little to no time. Just go to Twitter.com and get started. They just ask for your name, a user name and email, and you are on your way. I always think being straightforward is the best approach. So you can follow me @JaredNeff and see a picture of me.

That goes to the next point. There a couple of design features that can make your Twitter page unique. The most important is your picture. This will be next to every comment you make. Because it is so small, make sure it easy to see. If you are small in the picture to begin with, you will be hard to see. I also recommend using the same photo for all your profiles, so if you have a good photo on Facebook, go ahead and use it. There are also background pictures and color changing options, but most people access their accounts from their phones and will just see your picture, so that is the most important.

Once you have your account set up you can start to follow people and have them follow you. I will get more into this tomorrow, but you have the basics, and tomorrow we will go into the details of tweeting.

Twitter / $25 Gift Card

How much if at all do you use Twitter? Help out a promising grad student and take a very short survey. Also there is a chance to win a $25 Best Buy Gift Card.

Take the two minutes and click the link below and thanks in advance.

twitter survey

Twitter Lives On

This week if you “tweet” you have probably seen the LORT Twitter list that was posted by Yale MFA Student Devon Smith. Theatres that did well on the list are tweeting about how they did and I am sure the lower ranking ones are waking up and taking a real hard look at how they are doing not only with Twitter but social media in general. In the past month, four very smart people from the leaderships of various companies have come to me and said show me how to use twitter. I am not the best tweeter but I understand the basics and frankly once you practice it just isn’t that hard.

Number four on the “LORT Twitter Index” was Arena Stage. I think they are probably the best in the DC area about social media. They have a blog that is constantly updated and contains exciting stuff. They have YouTube channel that has great videos and is very well branded. They have a great Twitter account according to the list and most importantly they interact with their audience through these forms of media.

In a week they will be having a scavenger hunt that will be organized through Twitter and Facebook. It will take people on a journey through DC and I would imagine to the Lincoln Theatre where their production of The Fantasticks will be playing. The prize is actually a great one too, four tickets to opening night of The Fantasticks and a restaurant gift certificate for four.

Social media is more than just having a Twitter account and Facebook page but knowing how to take those tools and use them to interact with your audience.

Theatre Thursdays

It is #theatrethursday or Theatre Thursday. If you twitter you should try and twitter about your favorite show or theatre on Thursdays.

Here is one of my favorites.

Twitter Making Headlines – Part 2

The other headline I mentioned yesterday was about a Casting Director tweeting about actors during their auditions. It was not very smart on her part and while I found some of the tweets humorous she got in trouble with the Actors Union and the Casting Society of America’s President.

I have said it before and I will say it again. We are in a world where everyone is watching and we should all be mindful that the things we post could come back to haunt us later.

Here is the link to the New York Times article.

Twitter Making Headlines

There were recently two New York Times articles that revolved around the social media device called Twitter.

The first involved Next to Normal, a new Broadway Musical, that was nominated this year for 11 Tony nominations. I mocked their Twitter efforts saying it was “too much for me to follow” because they told the whole play through different character’s thoughts for a month. Well, I guess I was wrong @n2nbroadway (the Next to Normal twitter account name) now has over 566,000 followers and while you may ask if that turns into sales. It does. They have found through twitter that people have bought tickets because of twitter. Some people were unsure about the issues Next to Normal raised. When they heard the story told through Twitter they were sold. Even if they just sold tickets to .5 percent of their follows that would mean over 2,000 tickets. Not bad for free marketing.

When you think about it Twitter is not free. The site is but the time it takes to write the thoughts of the characters and strategically market this took hours upon hours of people’s time. And how do we measure the success of a Twitter marketing campaign?

Either the numbers are way off or Next to Normal is a brilliant marketer with Twitter. When I looked at other Broadway Twitter accounts no one even comes close to the number of followers. Hair has less than 5,000 and Rock of Ages has just over 5,000. Hmmm. How could Next to Normal have so many. I went through the first couple of pages to see if they were bots maybe? Nope. They all seem to be legit accounts. In fact since I have started writing this posting they have gained 30 more followers.

What will they do next to keep their followers?

To read the New York Times article click here.

Yes, You Are A Brand

Everyone here is a brand. We may think of social media as a way to kill time at work, but with this new form of connection moving in all around us, we are actually building brands of ourselves for our peers. Ever since I started accepting my Missouri Thespian students as friends on Facebook, I started to edit my wall. I keep the sexual stuff and profanity off my Facebook. I don’t want that representing me. I am more careful about the pictures posted and things I post, too. My Facebook, Twitter and Blog all represent me.

Some people ask, "Why not just set the privacy to high?" Because that is not me. I want to be open and honest with the people that want to “follow” me. You may not know it, but you are building a brand of yourself with every post. People learn more and more about you. Their opinion is shaped by what they read and the information they can gather online.

I am not trying to scare you into not posting, but just trying to make you think about every post and making sure you represent yourself to the public. Everything you put online could end up on the front page of the NY Times. So just be more careful about what you are representing.

Twitter Part 2

Yesterday I talked about a couple of ways to use Twitter. Now let’s focus on Twitter and Broadway. There are four specific examples of Twitter on Broadway that I know of and I am sure there are more.

1) ROCK OF AGES – An Off-Broadway musical that moved to Broadway and now is nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award. They use Twitter to show off ads and discounts. Nothing was of interest to me. I “un-followed” them pretty fast. Maybe if you live in NYC and love the show you would be interested in following them but I found the information useless.

2) NEXT TO NORMAL – Again a Best Musical nominee that started Off-Broadway then came to Washington to return to the Great White Way. They have used Twitter in a whole new way. They have the characters Tweeting their inner thoughts in order of the show and it is lasting several weeks. I think this is an interesting way to use Twitter but I really don’t get much out of it. It is being drug out so long that I am not sure where we left off and would have to go their site to see the whole story. I personally would rather just listen to the CD.

3) TONY AWARDS – This I find be a better use of Social Media. I think I like it more because it covers all the Broadway shows with focusing on the Tony Awards. I think it could go a step further with talking about when shows are going to be on TV. Like the Next to Normal cast being on the View.

4) KEN DAVENPORT – I saved the best for last. I love his tweets. He uses Twitter to talk about his day. Meetings he goes to and thoughts he has about certain issues with theatre and he posts articles. The brilliant part is he slips in things about his shows. So you don’t even realize you are getting ads sometimes. He doesn’t just send you ad after ad but slips them so you don’t even notice.

How could you use Twitter to best promote yourself or your show. Why would people want to follow you and I mean REALLY follow you. Make it interesting.

Twitter

I have talked about Facebook and the why I like it so much on this blog. Now it is time to talk about the other big social networking / media site Twitter. Twitter is new to me. I have had an account for 3 months. But I am just now learning how to use it. Lots of people use it as a Facebook wall and just write what they are doing throughout the day. But others are starting to really get a lot out of it.

The updates of your day are really boring unless you are a star or someone I am extremely interested in like Ken Davenport. A friend of mine said this weekend that Twitter won’t be around in a year. At which point we made a bet. If Twitter is more popular I win if it less popular then he wins. The hard part about this bet is that I can not find the number of Twitter users today.

When you start with Twitter it might take a while to find it useful. You might start to follow a lot of people that you really find useless. But stick with it. Un-follow them and work to build the right Twitter group to follow. Then you will find it useful.

Theatres are still figuring out how to use Twitter. Some just send out discounts and specials. (I un-follow those people fast.) Others are having important people in their company talk about what they are doing. Those I think are the most interesting. Who wouldn’t want an insight of the company they enjoy. Arena Stage just offered free tickets in Tweet. I think this was to test how many of the followers really read the tweets. I would be curious of the results. In my own experience the followers that act on tweets is very small but then again I am not giving away free tickets.

If you find Twitter useful please write a comment about how you use Twitter it could be to just get news or just follow friends. And don’t forget to follow me at @nderaj.

Surround Yourself with the Best

We are in a collaborative business. We work with lots of various people on one project. There are actors, directors, designers, stage managers, marketers, and many other people.

By surrounding yourself with the best you share knowledge and become even smarter. At a previous job I got the opportunity to hire someone that could, in part, assist me with budgeting. It was an obvious choice for me. I had an intern two years earlier who was a wiz with budgets and excel. By having her in my office things got done faster and there was more time to do other projects that I had been putting off.

Another example is Pride and Prejudice, a show I am helping produce. The lead producer wanted to know more about social media and how it could help spread the word and raise money for her show. Right away I knew two people that she should talk to. In a couple of emails a conference call was set and she got to listen to valuable information about what was going on in social media and how it could be used to help her. One of those people has a small empire of followers on Twitter and Facebook. The other has yet to make a website to reference, but he is a very smart grad student that is looking at how producers can fund a show with a lot of small investors as appose to a few large investors.

A friend once told me I was the most important person in his network. That was one of the best complements I could have gotten. We are good friends and I and I know we would be friends no matter what, but we both love to get together and brainstorm. Some exciting ideas come from those sessions that we both use.

So surround yourself with the smartest people and bring as many ideas to the table as you can get. Who knows what may come?