Many conversations have shifted to Twitter. It has become more than just a networking tool. Business is being transacted there.
For my company Twitter is a the perfect place to fulfill the need for people seeking information and tools for social media monitoring. There is an expressed need & my team & I offer our assistance. So for B2C & B2B companies Twitter has huge opportunities if your potential customers are there.
I have noticed a shift from people using email to their reliance on direct messages in Twitter. I first noticed this in the end of December & it is becoming more apparent. There are two things:
1. people expect an immediate response via Twitter
- I don’t have it open all the time
- Twitter quit emailing me notifications of DM’s in mid December
- I monitor email all the time
2. DM’s scare me in regard to archiving messages because:
- they’re not searchable
- management of messages in Twitter is difficult – it’s one message at a time to delete
These are the solutions that I’ve come up with:
set up Tweet Deck. I like the columns so that I can see the following:
Direct Messages, Replies, Search: Techrigy, Search: ‘an industry term’, my coworkers
I still do not have it open all the time though. Sometimes it’s 2 hrs between checking it. It’s easier to have it in the background. Maybe I will need to shift my focus to Twitter rather than email?
For the archival issue, I did find that Tweet Deck has the option to email tweets to yourself (or anyone). I’ve been using this for DM’s that I want to archive.
My last post was on ‘Digital Body Language’ & communicating in the other’s person’s chosen method, so these are the accommodations I’ve made. What have you noticed in regard to social networking & people’s expectations? Has it affected how you’re doing business?
Curious, i going to test.
If you visit your settings panel at twitter.com, there is an option to force direct messages to be emailed to your chosen account. That’s what I’ve done for a month, and is the best way to search DMs until someone develops an API tool.
It’s because of this ability that I’ve since removed the DM column in TweetDeck.
Hi Ari,
For my Twitter settings, I’ve always had all the boxes checked including the one to receive direct messages by email.
When I was following about 3 k people it broke & hasn’t worked since. I’m glad that you get yours (but, be cautious, because there’s no warning when it quits working. I didn’t know for 2 weeks).
That’s pretty close to the way I have been using TweetDeck, but recently, I had to suspend using it. What I am finding is that about midday it maxes out on the API limit. Maybe there is something I am need to tweek in my settings.
I have a really mixed pattern of where I access Twitter from, all very much dependent on the situation.
Twitter tools I use include:
TweetDeck
Twhirl
Tweetie
bit.ly
Remarkd
Twitpic
GetSatisfaction
Skitch
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