VernonGirl

Automated reply system for Twitter: antique collector and web designer unite to brand Twitter

On Twitter, what if you could brand your tweets, follow key phrases and auto-reply to them in real time from your desktop?

TweetBrand is a free mini application launched just over one week ago that allows you to brand your tweets with a company name, your name, tagline, or message of your choosing and link that branding right to a specific web site or landing page.

This majour breakthrough allows you to take back the valuable impression space on each tweet from Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Twitterfeed, and other companies promoting themselves on your tweet.

Listing your website on the tweet saves your followers, or potential followers a step or two in getting to your website, thereby increasing traffic.

TweetBrand is the tip of the larger iceberg, a product (to be named soon), which will launch the third week of January 2010. Both applications are part of the company MarketMeTweet.

According to Tammy Kahn Fennell, Co-Director of MarketMeTweet, “our product, will be the ultimate Twitter marketing application.” she says.

The product, will combine some of the very powerful features of Socialoomph (like scheduling multiple tweets, automatic link shortening, and basic management to organize friends and followers) with TweetBrand’s ability to brand tweets from multiple users and multiple brands.

The titanic revelation here though, is the product's ability to follow key words or key phrases in real time with the application on your desktop, and auto-reply once with a specific phrase. It will also track how those keywords are performing measured by which tweets are turning into followers, potential customers, or buyers.

Yes, it’s an automatic conversation starter for Twitter. A robot engages people with an @reply and then you take over the conversation as a live person.

It’s powerful call centre-like technology for Twitter users like those automated telephone systems that phone you. When you pick up and say “hello” there is a pause and then someone comes on the line with you, surveys you or tries to sell you something.

Say you sell sneakers. You may do a phrase search for "Nike 701". Bob in Nebraska tweets, "Deciding if I should buy the Nike 701.” You will use the product to reach out to him and say something like, "Saw u tweeted about Nike shoes, do u use them for running?" or "I own Nike 701 and love them."

Tammy says, “our product will cut through the clutter and allow conversations to happen. You will be able to add “negative” keywords to filter out subjects you’re not interested in.”

Let’s say you are in the antiques and collectables business. You would set up “German figurine” as your key phrase to follow. Then, you would write and automate a specific reply to that keyword tweet. “I saw you tweeted about German figurines, which type do you collect?” If there is a response, you now have a conversation to get personally involved in.

Tammy Kahn Fennell knows it works. From Long Island, New York, she is also the owner of Vintage Rare Stuff, a business she operates with her father. The technology has allowed her niche business to get out in front on Twitter. No stranger to E-Bay, Tammy says, “I’ve been doing the collectables business for five years. One year ago, I started to understand the power of social networking, Twitter and blogging. Collectibles Corner T.V., a web T.V. show, was my first step away from dealing with physical antiques and collectables and doing more internet stuff.”

While helping some people manage their sites, she met Alan Hamlyn, her business partner who is based out of England. His company is a website design and development agency Wuup Media.

Tammy says, “I said to Alan that I love Twitter and I’m getting lots of interviews to my shows. He said that if I could think it, he could create it.” So they developed the product and tried it for his business. “All of a sudden he went from 10 followers to 1000 followers. So we said, let’s form a company. Now, I handle all the marketing and he does all the development.”

Alan is twenty-one years old. Tammy says of Alan, “He is so incredible, a boy genius. He is wise beyond his years.” Alan and Tammy have created the application face to face on webcam using Skype. She’ll be seeing Alan for the first time in the flesh in April 2010. “I feel like I know him and his whole staff. We’ve toured each other’s offices on Skype.” Tammy says.

Along with her father, Tammy also works with her husband in the antiques and collectables business. Her husband is from England and the two of them recently had a baby boy. Tammy says, “My husband and I are firm believers that people should make it in this world. It’s a cool world if you use ethical Twitter marketing. You can use this tool to make connections. Oh, and we’ve banned words like "it" or "the" to keep spammers out. I hate people who spam on Twitter, it drives me nuts.”

Pricing for the product will start at $14.99 and up per month for a personal account. Professional unlimited accounts will be available too. Tammy says, “Updates will be included free. We will have a feedback section directly from the application. We want the community of users to tell us what they want and we’ll build it. We don’t think those other brands like Tweetdeck, will allow you to brand your tweets anytime soon, so get on board and support us. Within the first two months, we may add statistical link tracking.”

MarketmeTweet.com has an Affiliate program with a 40% payout. In one week, they have seen more than one thousand downloads of their TweetBrand free product and Tammy is scheduled for various internet blog site interviews. 

The Market Me Tweet blog  will keep you updated on new feature launches and Beta tests. Follow them @marketmetweets on Twitter.

Do you think branding and automatic reply technology on Twitter is a good thing? Or do you oppose it? I would love to hear your point of view. Please post your comment. There is a link in the footer of this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Twitter Conversation Starter

From Florence to Facebook: Calgary leather handbag designer's career is launched

 

Sabra Mottram is a Designer who makes earrings, cuffs, one of a kind handbags and moccasins out of leather. She launched her design career, Sabra Mottram Designs, a little over one year ago on Facebook. She says, "I started off displaying the things I make on Facebook for my own satisfaction in an album called: Things I Make. I made a bag for a friend on her birthday. Friends of mine would say, "I want one." The more bags that I put up on Facebook, the more orders I got." Now, she has a website, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and blog. Avenue Magazine, last October, featured a bag of Sabra's as part of the Style section. Calgary Fashion has accepted her as one of their top designers. (Pictured above: Littlest Hobo Airporting Bag by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sanja Lukač)

In 2010 she plans to be part of Alberta Fashion Week and Vancouver Fashion week. "I will have two launches this year. I am going to be adding some clothing to my collection. Most likely some leather, but other fashions as well. The clothing line will be extremely small to start, but it will grow." she says.

Sabra Mottram's current collection is the Fall/Winter 2009 Collection. She hopped a plane in Calgary last Fall and flew to Italy where she hand picked the leather hides at Primorepelli, a leather distributor in Fucecchio (about half an hour from Florence) in the heart of the tannery district of Tuscany where fine Italian leather comes from.

"I picked good Fall/Winter colours I like and staples like black. After my trip to Italy I came up with new designs and decided to change the style of the bags slightly. I created three new patterns, cut out templates and starting sewing. I made a Hard Bag Overnighter style, Saddle Bag style and a completely Hard Bag which is a men's style. I also use Lindsey handbags which are Tandy Kits I stamp and carve myself with designs I make or use stencils for." she says.

(Pictured above: Swallow Lindsey handbag with custom design by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sanja Lukač)

The collection has a lot of appliques, which is the biggest change from the last collection. The collection was inspired by Nice, France and Pisa near Florence, Italy. Sabra says, "I went to Pisa and looked at the architecture in Florence. The architecture was classic looking and there was lots of French influence. I started the collection with one I made for myself, the Fleur de Lis of Florence. It has Fleur de Lis pull tags for the zippers and a large Florence Fleur de Lis on the side of the bag. It is named in French because I was going to France and Italy. I kind of tie things together."

 

(Pictured above: Larsen B Saddlebag by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sabra Mottram Designs)

All of her bags are named by their unique attributes. For example, she made a bag with white patent leather with holes and a turquoise back side. It reminded her of the Larsen B Ice Shelf that dissolved recently. It comes with wooden nautical-looking accoutrements for the zipper pulls.

She purchases all the material for the satin and lace interior linings of her handbags in Calgary. She  chooses lace that accentuates the satin and buys enough satin lining for two or three bags only. "I don't purchase too many materials at once because I do things as one of a kind, so it doesn't go out of fashion. I get bored with styles rather quickly." she says.

Most of her bags have been sold to friends and family, but recently a Calgary Flames player's wife purchased one and and she sold two custom ordered bags to a company as parting gifts for two male employees. "I had one men's bag already made, and I got the call. I asked the client what the bags were for and she told me she wanted a unique one of a kind gift. I ran to Tandy to purchase some leather that was more metropolitan and less rustic to show her. She ordered two."

Sabra has received many orders through Facebook from friends and family. Sabra remarks, "People want to buy local and from people they know. They like to support the Arts Community in Calgary, small endeavours, and the barter system."

Using Facebook, she announces art and fashion shows that she is at or is involved in. "Facebook events are easy because I can upload a picture, give all the details and send it out to everyone in my Facebook, as well as people in my email who are not on Facebook."

She has a Facebook Fan Page for Sabra Mottram Designs in addition to her personal page, which is only for close friends and family. "I have 51 fans. It has brought people from the public into my circle who are not my friends or family. They are friends of friends who I wouldn't normally have access to."

The barter system also works for Sabra. She put a request to exchange photography for a handbag on Facebook. "I got 5 replies immediately and the first I liked I went with." she says.

Using iWeb on her Mac laptop, Sabra created her website through painstaking hours of trial and error. The website features a Gallery to view her handbags in a slideshow format and Shop where purchases can be made by Paypal. Instead of going through MobileMe for hosting, she purchased hosting through Go Daddy. The clean design templates of iWeb suited her style and matched her brand which is her SM signature stamped on all tags and dust jackets for each handbag hand-sewn by her. Every bag is named individually, so it is a one of a kind collector's item. "Most designers use their name as their brand." she says.

Her fan page on Facebook automatically updates her Twitter. If she posts photos to her Fan Page on Facebook, a tweet is sent. For example: I posted 13 photos on Facebook in the album "AW09" http://bit.ly/8YdHw.

Fearless in the social media realm, she just launched Sabra Mottram Design's Blog on Wordpress  discussing the archaeology of style. Sabra is a University of Calgary graduate with a B. Sc. in Archaeology. She says. "Nothing is really an original idea in reality. Styles change through time, they come and go, ballooning out like a battleship curve and then fading away again. You can see aspects of certain styles that have carried through more than just costuming, but in small elements as well."

Sabra's designs are featured on a blog for a store called Worth. She keeps the bags in that store to sell at retail but if one sells through Facebook or other methods, she can pull them out any time because they are on consignment.

"When I was a little girl, I was sick a lot, so I used to stay at home with my mom. My mom taught me how to use a sewing machine.I always wanted to make drawstring handbags like Polly Pocket or Anne of Green Gables. I stopped sewing things for a while because I had so many problems with the bobbins. Instead, I began to bead things and make costumes from scratch." she says.

Sabra was an Account Manager for a sub-prime lender up until about a year and a half ago. When the financial crises hit, she was laid off immediately. She took a watercolour painting class, woodworking class and ceramics class. She says, "My creativity spilled out into new areas where I wanted to work with leather. My grandfather on my mom's side was a leather saddle maker, and on my other side of the family, the Mottrams, they were leather makers. I bought a turquoise deer hide to make a vest and couldn't find a pattern I liked, so I got bored and decided to turn it into a handbag. My friends on Facebook wanted me to make them one."

Sabra follows Fashion Television on Twitter so Jeanne Beker will some day find out about her. There is lots on the horizon, so it's really exciting. And this is just in one year. In three years, I'll be in London."

Sabra's website: http://sabramottramdesigns.ca/Sabra_Mottram_Designs/Home.html

Sabra on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sabramottram

Sabra's Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sabra-Mottram/117153635506

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Sabra's biggest fan

Follow me on Twitter

Kelowna International Airport (YLW) takes flight with social media

Jenelle Turpin (pictured above with MP Ron Cannan in front of an Antonov) is the Airport Communications Coordinator, Community & Media Relations, for the Kelowna International Airport. She is at the forefront of her industry for using Twitter as a communications tool, pushing the envelope of this medium to make a difference in the government sector to the airport’s passengers and business tenants, the economic development of the Okanagan region and even brides and grooms who want to be married at the airport.

Her experience with traditional media, organizing events for dignitaries such as Wayne Gretzky, Desmond Tutu and Adrienne Clarkson and her determination to find a way to get the job done (learned while wearing Army boots), help her find and implement creative social media techniques like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr for public relations, airport communications, emergency response, marketing and customer service.

Before taking the leap into social media, Jenelle wrote up a social media plan. “I needed to explain it and get the buy-in from management which at the airport was an easy sell.” she says. She started Twitter on September 8, 2009 and her goal was to have one hundred followers by October 30^th, 2009. “By October 1^st I had my first one hundred followers. It’s a strange concept, this social media, it’s like you’re asking for stalkers. If I have five hundred I’ll be so excited. I think five hundred is a good sampling of people using the airport.”

Frustration with Facebook’s inability to provide customer service on setting up a simple fan page for the airport has moved her social media efforts into communicating in 140 characters on Twitter. Although she is disappointed in Facebook, who she has been emailing since September 2009 to get approval as an airport organization, and with no response from them, she likes using Twitter.

“I’m not promoting Facebook as much as Twitter. I’m surprised, because I wanted to focus on Facebook, but it’s not as easy or convenient. I like to explain things [she says putting the emphasis on explain, as if it’s a very long word]. I’m long-winded so it’s hard to explain in 140 characters. Writing on Twitter is still is a whole new culture and this is one portion of my job.” she remarks.

Jenelle says, “I saw not a negative side, but a surprising side of Twitter when we had an incident. A while ago, a Cessna crashed just outside the property at 9:59 a.m.. Thirty-one minutes later when I got back to my computer, I realized a media outlet had heard a radio transfer about the crash and they started tweeting at 9:59 a.m. Then others started tweeting. The media outlet suspected a death. It was twenty-five minutes before it was clarified by the same media outlet on site that there was no death or injuries. That can be dangerous, because what if the family saw that? In future I know to keep a closer eye on it. If I have a majour incident, I will have a staff person assigned just to watch social media outlets and get direction from me. If out of context they can let me know.”

Jenelle proves that social media really can build relationships. Jenelle was seeing complaining tweets from an influential person who follows the wine industry quite closely, about flying in general. “I tweeted to her that there is wine tasting in the wine shop or she could buy a flight of wine at the Wine Café – a new expansion we added in. She was much happier and it turned a negative into a positive.”

“I try to follow every one of the airports we fly to [on Twitter], all airlines as well as other airports to see what they’re up to. Horizon Air, Air Canada and Westjet promote their last minute deals.” she says. She tweets those out to give added customer service to people thinking of flying who want to get the last minute deals.

She communicates with other airports on Twitter. One day the weather was bad and snowing in Calgary and flights were delayed. “I sent a tweet to one of my contacts at the Calgary airport and within moments he posted photos to Flickr. I was able to tweet out links to those pictures that explained the reason the flights were late coming from Calgary.

If I notice people talking on Twitter, I see how flights are running. I will tell them if they are late or on time and remind them that if they are picking people up or dropping off that there is free fifteen minute parking in the short term parking lot. I will tell them if it’s raining or cold to remember the free courtesy ride to the terminal when parking in the long term lot. And with the holiday season what they can or can’t take on the flights, packing smart links, and shuttle rides right from Penticton, Salmon Arm and other locations.”

Jenelle uses Twitter to send media releases. “Media are great ones to follow and they follow me. Don’t just send your media release out by fax or email, but link them and have an attachment on Twitter.” she says

Jenelle will also take photos of their new gift shops and drag them onto Tweetdeck.  And she tweets out links to their Kelowna International Airport Magazine YLW Connection.

In traditional media for years, Jenelle began her career with the Military Police. She was with them for six years and she found herself speaking to school and youth groups and doing many public relations related roles with the military. That positivity appealed to her so she did some research and determined to take a career path that would offer her the chance to make a difference. She then became Public Affairs Officer.

When she was with the Edmonton Army/Airforce base, which was becoming the western headquarters for the Army, the business community tapped into her military knowledge. She said, “I found there was great opportunity to work in business. I was expecting my first child. Wearing army boots and going away for six months didn’t appeal to me.”

After ten years with the military, she began working for the Alberta government gaming and liquor commission and later worked for the Edmonton Mayor’s office in Corporate Communications. Her role involved looking after special events like Desmond Tutu’s visit to Edmonton, Adrienne Clarkson’s inaugural visit to the City of Edmonton as Governor General and the retirement ceremonies of Wayne Gretzky. Little did she know that the Wayne Gretzky event would see 10,000 people and lots of national media coverage.

Her proudest moment was her role in the Desmond Tutu event. All of the events planned for his visit were paid venues. The Edmonton Mayor at the time wanted Desmond Tutu to hold a public event. So Jenelle proposed the idea to invite school children to ask questions to the Nobel peace prize winner. She said, “Questions were submitted and vetted, and they would get up to the microphone and ask questions and Tutu would respond. He accepted only our idea and ours was the only free event to the public. It was a phenomenal event. School children across the city were invited.”

(photo above: Jenelle Turpin at a Valley Wide Chamber event promoting the Kelowna International Airport)

With family obligations in Kelowna, she later returned to Kelowna where she had grown up in her teen years. “I’ve been really fortunate. I did a stint with Tourism Kelowna / Kelowna Chamber and then Pacific Safety Products in public relations, marketing and sales. It was a great opportunity to see what a publicly traded company goes through. But my passion has always been in government.” she says.

About six years ago she landed a short-term contract with Kelowna City Hall which led to a full-time permanent position and then now into her permanent role with the Kelowna International Airport for the past three years.

“The travel industry is constantly changing. I work with three levels of government and the business community who are our tenants. We need them and they need us. For example, Kelowna Flightcraft brings in revenue and employment. When we extended the runway, the Antonov (in this case the world's second largest fixed-wing aircraft) flew non-stop from Russia containing 3 helicopters that needed to be retrofitted. That couldn’t have happened if the runway couldn’t have been extended.

We also have our passengers. They live here [in the Okanagan] for the lifestyle, but they work elsewhere. One point four million passengers go through Kelowna International Airport in one year. Only fifty percent are from Kelowna. The rest are from the catchment area of the interior including Kamloops, Revelstoke and Penticton.

Many go at 6:00 a.m. Monday to Seattle or Calgary, working the week, and then coming home Friday.” Jenelle says. One passenger lives in Penticton and her husband works in South Africa for three months. Even Jenelle’s spouse was working one month in Kelowna and one month in London. “We have the best of both worlds. It wouldn’t be so easy if we lived far away from the airport.”

In January, Kelowna International Airport will be hosting two weddings right at the airport on the mezzanine level. Jenelle says, “In early January, one couple wants to get married here before they fly to Mexico. The couple says that it’s easier to get married here, so they are bringing the Minister in front of twenty friends and family at 6:30 in the morning to toast to coffee and Timbits and then catching their departure at 8:00 a.m. The bride will wear her veil, but the full ceremony, event and costumes will be in Mexico. Usually it’s a happy place. You occasionally see sad. Every day, I see families saying hello or goodbye and they are crying. Sometimes I walk up to my office with tears in my eyes.” (If you’re a chick, this is a good thing.)

Jenelle is a graduate of Grant McEwan University and a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, BC chapter. She says, “It’s a great organization of communicators.”

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your comments on this article.

Courtenay Pitcher, Travel wannabe and Social media maven

Find me on Twitter

 

 

Video: auto follow and auto direct message in Twitter using Socialoomph

Here is a quick Twitter video (less than four minutes long), showing you two time-saving automated features you can tap into through Socialoomph online software:

1. Auto Follow: automatically follow any new followers.

2. Auto Direct Message: send a quick welcome message to new followers.

My personal philosophy is to follow everyone who follows me. I think it is a nice courtesy. So the auto follow feature in Socialoomph's online software is a great tool for me.

As for Direct Messages, some people don't read them, but some people do (maybe 10%). So if you want to send one, automating them is convenient.

Do you think either of these tools are useful? I look forward to your comments.

Here is the video:

If for some reason, you can't see the video, click into my Youtube site.

Thanks for watching and reading!

Courtenay Pitcher
Twitter efficiency expert

Find me on Twitter @vernongirl

http://www.vernongirl.com

Related posts:

Video on how to upload tweets and schedule them later using Socialoomph.com

Why you should follow absolutely everybody on Twitter - even the annoying ones.

Video Case study on how to find targeted Twitter followers using ski as a key tweet word

Greater Vernon Chamber Manager Touts Twitter

Driving economic development, promoting members, attracting new members, getting donors and sponsorships, selling event tickets and building relationships are just a few ways Twitter is helping Val Trevis, General Manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce in Vernon, B.C.

Val Trevis, Manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce (GVCC), started looking at social media (Facebook, Twitter) at the end of 2008. The GVCC signed up for Facebook, but ran into issues about privacy and posting pictures. So they kept the Facebook site active, but not proactive.

Then, she signed up for Twitter and said, "I don't get it."

A local GVCC member and an early Twitter adopter, Brenda Ellis (known as Brell), met with Val in July 2009 and told her about a Twitter business day that was happening in Kelowna. Twitter business day was the brainchild of Nick Kellet. He had a vision to have Kelowna business connect on Twitter.

The Kelowna Chamber got involved and Connecting Kelowna became the Twitter business day that Kellet envisioned.

In visiting this site, where Kellet posted 722 Twitter Feeds for Kelowna and Okanagan Valley, and information on how to use Twitter, Val then said, "Hey, I get it."

She began using Twitter in August 2009 more seriously, and created Vernon biz day, a day designed to connect greater Vernon area businesses on Twitter. She put an article in the local paper, and got some response.

It was slow to start. Then on October 20th, Scott Davis came to Vernon and showed her group Tweetdeck. Val said, "That's when the light turned on.

With the various columns in Tweetdeck, she could see what her various accounts were doing. The GVCC has accounts for membership, chamber, Val and eco business (@gvccmembership, @vernonchamber, @valtrevis and @ecobizniz).

Val says, "One of the most valuable things I learned from Scott Davis, is that you have to be human on Twitter." That is one of the reasons why Val did not set up an automated message on Twitter, why she does her own tweets and why she often retweets her members and, even, non-members.

She also realized how Twitter could be an opportunity for some of her staff, including herself, to connect personally with members and potential members and for businesses to connect with each other.

"Twitter brings out electronic conversations. Then, they are connecting physically and it's much easier for them to talk to each other in person," Val said. At a Vernon Women in Business function, one Twitter follower even said to Val, "I feel like I know you because we've been Twittering." Val was at a meeting and a man stood up to introduce himself. She thought, "Hey, I Twitter with that guy." Afterwards, the conversation with him was warm and friendly, like they already knew each other.

Val attended some Canadian and BC Chamber functions last September and October and quickly realized that the GVCC is an early adopter of Twitter and one of the Chambers taking off with it in BC.

Val says, "I help a couple businesses each week by showing them what they can do. First, Twitter, then Tweetdeck. That's when most businesses get it."

One comment to Val from a member was: "We've been able to connect to business up and down the valley using Twitter." One Twitter follower recently mentioned to Val that he is hearing great things about the GVCC, and its use of Twitter, in the south Okanagan.

Val says that it has also created a network in Vancouver who want to have accessibility to the Vernon market. One Vancouver company sent two gift certificates worth $1800 when Val put a call out for donations on Twitter for GVCC's upcoming Christmas party. She says, "I've done over $2200 worth of business this week alone, selling tickets for the Christmas Party and getting door prizes for the Chamber, on Twitter."

Val is now working on a "Tweet Up". This will be an event to get members and non-members into one room to discuss Twitter and how it can benefit their businesses, provide Twitter training, introduce the Chamber benefits to non-members, get examples of how Twitter has helped local businesses and allow the Twitter community to connect with one another.

"One of my mandates is to drive economic development in the community." Trevis says, "Twitter is a free way of doing this."

"I throw up questions on Twitter and get answers now to help my members. We feature new members that join the Chamber. This is marketing that our members can do. And our non-members are helping us too," she remarks.

She says, "I tell businesses that you can isolate yourselves. Or, you can expand and look outside your boundaries of who can support. I am a huge proponent for shopping local, but try to draw people to your business from outside your community."

One board member asked Val why she was spending so much time on Twitter. Val asked the board member to try to understand Twitter, think about the role of the chamber and connect the dots. The board member got it.

"My husband says I'm a Twitter junkie. It's social. I don't have TV. I look for news on Twitter, email or the web. In that way, I'm never really off the clock," Val says. The GVCC just hit one thousand tweets, something Val is very proud of.

Val says, "We are looking at working with a social media college student to help us with Facebook and Twitter. We want to know what else we can do that we're not already doing." Val, at one time an anti-blog proponent, is also looking at blogging as a potential social media marketing opportunity.

A couple of weeks ago, Val wrote a Morning Star Article called "Unsung heroes" about how volunteers are the backbone of our community. She said, "I tweeted out a link to it and got two responses from New York, one from Columbia, one from Boston and one from the UK. They all said it was a great article. To think that people retweeted a local column written for our little Chamber in our community makes me think that blogging is no longer a bad idea too."

Membership has its benefits. Join the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce. (I just joined today.)

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, brand spanking new Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce member and Twitter touter too.

http://www.vernongirl.com

http://twitter.com/vernongirl

Are Twitter direct messages dead, or dying a slow death?

 
One of the direct messages greeting me yesterday in my Twitter inbox said, "Your direct message was received but we do NOT read DMs for this account. If you do want to contact us via Twitter, use the @TMpodcast."

Now, either this is a very clever way to get people to reply to this company (and hence push up their followers and exposure), or direct messages are on their way into the grave.

Maybe, they've already been put in the ground and buried?

Actually, @TMpodcast told me on Tweetdeck, through a reply, that "...95% of all our DM's are spam. At least with email we can filter."

I liked direct messages when I started tweeting. They felt kind of personal and intimate. Then, I realized I could set up an auto direct message to new followers thanking them for following. In fact, my direct message to new followers says, "Thanks for the follow! Watch for twitter tips and Vernon, BC info on Vernon Girl . I send it using a software called Socialoomph.

 

When I discovered another software named Tweet Adder, I realized that users can filter out all direct messages that contain links.

 
Unfortunately, many Twitter accounts have been hacked and more spam and phishing schemes are sent through direct messages.

So, are direct messages on their way out?

I think they are still powerful with new Twitter users who are unjaded. I have to admit, I still look forward to piling through them in my in-box to get a quick overview of who is following me and how many followers they have, even though there is a column in Tweetdeck for new followers.

If you want to give some life-support to your direct messages, I would recommend leaving out your link.

(I'm going into my autobot now to delete mine.) That way your direct message won't be filtered out by software like Tweet Adder.

Also, I find it nice when people personalize their direct message.

If you put my name in a direct message, it feels like it is actually meant for me and it isn't an autobot.

But, like one of my readers commented on this controversial article about direct messages, Twitter is a platform for having public conversations. So don't rely too much on direct messages. Use the reply or retweet buttons instead.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, direct message reader and Twitter addict
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