AJ Feuerman

Publicist | Social Media Strategist | Brunch Fanatic

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You Should Be Using Twitter Lists

November 10, 2015 By AJ Leave a Comment

I still love Twitter, though a number of articles that claim it’s dying (I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT!). For real-time news and as a sort of thought-purge (those quippy one-liners I just have to put out into the world), it works for me. I was an early adopter of the platform and have a huge attachment to it. The best tip I can give you to love it is this: customization.

A big part of that is Twitter Lists. They came along in 2009 as a response to Facebook groups; they offer a way for you to bunch together users on Twitter into groups so that you can get an overview of what they’re up to. Consider that the most active Twitter users might follow hundreds or thousands of people — there is just no way to see every single tweet. But segmenting them makes the consumption process a little more streamlined.

Reasons you might create a Twitter list(s):

  • You want to be able to just see the latest news or just what close friends are up to.
  • You share a common interest. (I keep a list of “Kings fans” I “watch” hockey games with and it’s become a really fun way to watch games when home watching alone!)
  • You need to monitor certain accounts for a work project. (i.e. You’re going to a conference and want to follow other people going; You work with bloggers and want to monitor what a bunch of them are writing about, etc.)
  • You want to follow all the people you work with or all of your relatives.
  • You want to recommend a certain group of people for others to follow (because other people can subscribe to your lists).
  • You follow a b’zillion out of obligation but really only care what 25 people are actually up to.
  • You want to see what some folks are up to without actually following them (yes, you can add users to lists that you aren’t actually following).

How is this accomplished? Twitter makes it really easy with this guide.

Where do you find your lists once you’ve created them? Right here. And here’s a good thing to keep in mind — if you ever unfollow someone on Twitter who happens to be a on a list, you should also go into your gears and remove them from the list(s) as well — unless you want them to keep showing up on the list.

You Should Be Using Twitter Lists

You can also use the lists page to see what lists other people have you on. Switch your view to “Member of.”

You Should Be Using Twitter Lists

Keep in mind when you add someone to a list, they will be notified. So if you’re like me, and you keep that aforementioned list of people you really care about among all the noise, you may want to make it a private list so that A. no one is notified and B. no one is offended. Or let’s say you’re eyeing potential clients? Keeping tabs on competitors? Make that a private list, guru.

Don’t panic. It sounds like a lot of work but it’s worth the effort. Set aside an hour or two some Sunday afternoon when you’re watching Law & Order SVU episodes on USA that you’ve seen a thousand times before anyway and go to this website, TwitListManager. This is a GREAT, basic tool to get started with. Because you probably already follow a ton of people and going to each and every profile and adding them to lists could take forever and your time is valuable. TLM allows you to do it much more efficiently if you’re just starting out with lists. And then moving forward, whenever you follow someone new, just be sure to add them where you need them.

BONUS: If you use a Twitter application like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, you can spread out your streams and it ends up looking like a Twitter Master Control. You can additionally create lists or streams for one hashtag or one keyword you want to monitor. It makes the entire Twitter experience much more high end and meaningful.

You Should Be Using Twitter Lists

P.S. That’s Tweet deck. It’s my fave. I’m old school.

P.P.S. That’s not even all of the lists I use.

Not sold? Confused? Drop a question in the comments and I’ll help you out! 

 

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Lists

These Are My Obsessions

July 24, 2015 By AJ 1 Comment

When I saw this in Stephanie’s blog, Not Entirely Perfect, I thought it was so much fun… So I’m stealing it! (Thank you, Stephanie.)

It’s easy, if not common, to tell people you are obsessed with something, right? But what would your friends say you’re obsessed with? If you think you can predict what they’d say, think again!

So I polled a dozen randomly selected friends and what began as kind of a vanity thing ended up being a rather valuable learning experience — but I’ll get to that at the end.

12/12: BRUNCH or FOOD. Most said brunch. I cannot dispute this. I do love my brunches. Not a week goes by these days when someone doesn’t ask me for a recommendation. I always take the ask seriously and send back options. I believe in brunch choices.

10/12: HOT GUYS. A few people mentioned specific hot guys such as Tom Hardy, Matt Bomer or “Shirtless Zac Efron.” Which is accurate across the board. (Frankly, with a shirt on, Zefron is useless to me) I’m not ashamed to admit I enjoy a handsome man.

10/12: PUPPIES. Yes, I have a problem. One time I was in a shop with friends. A very attractive, single man walked by outside and everyone turned to watch him through the store window. I was looking at the dog he was walking. No one was surprised. Priorities, people.

These are my obsessions

8/12: KINGS (HOCKEY). It’s funny cause I would never call myself obsessed with hockey but I do like it a ton. I grew up in a “hockey family” so I’ve just always loved it. I have become even more fond of it as more of my friends have become fans, though, and we’ve started to watch and attend games together. I used to prefer to watch alone – I have no idea why now.

8/12: SOCIAL MEDIA/TECHNOLOGY. I don’t really know about that but let me look into it on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Quora, Venture Beat, Gadget Review — or something like that and circle back with you later. (One friend said “earphones” which I could have bunched in here. It’s very true — I do love them.)

7/12: VODKA. No comment. But pass the bottle

7/12: STAR TREK. Yes, for sure, although to be clear, I prefer “The Next Generation” franchise above all others. I enjoyed the first JJ Abrams reboot but hated “Into Darkness.”

These are my obessions

6/12: MUSICALS. At my elementary school, each grade was responsible for putting on a musical in their designated month. It’s not that they were having us put on “Oklahoma” or “West Side Story,” mind you. I went to a Jewish private school and the musicals were usually historical or biblical stories with songs written by our music teacher. But that was a huge part of my childhood. I don’t think I couldn’t be obsessed with musicals.

6/12: TELEVISION. Some qualified this as “Netflix” but the general consensus is that I am obsessed with TV. I don’t think I am as much as I used to be, but I do love it a lot.

Some things only one or two people came back with: X-Men or Marvel, boy bands, designer handbags, concerts, wearing black, Yankees, Sharknado and Starbucks.

KEY LEARNINGS

Because I hinge toward insecurity more often than not, I have this weird, ingrained belief that no one really knows me. In the same way a 14 year old might shout at their parents “YOU DON’T KNOW THE REAL ME!” It’s not a judgement against my friends — it’s derived from the fact that I think I am hard to get to know and a little bit because I worry people won’t like me. But I swear to you, every time I got an email back from a friend on this little mission, I was slapped in the face with warmth and flattery. It was such a humbling experience. People do know me, guys! In the end I actually felt like crying because I realized how stupid I am and that I do have some really great relationships and there are people I can count on. (Again, this is not a judgement against my friends – I know I can count on them but you know how that is when you feel sad and alone and think impractically that there’s no one to call who will understand?)

One of my friends replied that I was obsessed with bracelets at the same time I posted this on Twitter. Amazing.

This was a perfect shot of self esteem. It made me feel loved in the best way.

These are my obsessions! And if I died tomorrow, would I be okay being remembered as a boy band fanatic who enjoyed the occasional decadent brunch, loved hockey and sexy male celebrities?

Hell yes. 

Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: Boy Bands, Hockey, Musicals, Obsessions, Puppies, Social Media, Star Trek, vodka

Twitter Pet Peeves

June 16, 2015 By AJ 1 Comment

Twitter may be imploding just a little – and we’re not helping

Get it together, guys!

Sigh. Friends, we need to talk about Twitter. The company is currently battling challenges that include buzzwords like “IPO,” “profitability,” and “stock price,” as it bids adieu to supposedly beloved CEO Dick Costolo and welcomes back, if only temporarily, one of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey, as interim CEO. (You heard it here first: Jack is totally sticking around. Also, I love Jack Dorsey.)

Twitter Pet Peeves

(Left to right) Costolo and Twitter co-founders Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone

In any case, it may or may not be kind of a mess over there, right? I tweet several times a day — how often do people RT or reply? Sometimes. Often. Seldom. Who cares? I always say Twitter is the platform you have to make work for you. I don’t know how many of my followers are really seeing what I put out there, but I keep trying. I do try my best to engage with others, and lists help, but it’s rough out there.

– PRO TIP! To better manager Twitter lists: TwitListManager –

In any case, while the company tries to sort themselves out and find a way to bring the community feel back (and they will!), I polled Social Media Club for their twitter pet peeves. I agree with every. single. one.

  • “I will almost never follow-back an egg (no profile picture), a profile that is all hashtags, or anyone who’s fixated on asking for a follow-back before any other interaction.” -@Stevens1, Swimmer Media
  • “Gurus, ninjas, disruptors and game-changers.” -@JeniferVides
  • “When they start a tweet with @jessicagottlieb because that ensures like eight people will see it….” -@JessicaGottlieb
  • “Blatant in-line hashtag overuse.” -@JessiSanfilippo, Shuggilippo

Hey. Don't be a hash-hole. http://t.co/BmUIhjGHb2

— Jess Sanfilippo (@JessSanfilippo) June 15, 2015

  • “PR pitch via tweet. I’m finding this is happening a lot lately especially from mobile app companies. I can’t think of a less personal form of initial contact.” -@cbaccus
  • “Accounts that only post from other platforms. i.e. Facebook.” -@busybeeblogger
  • “Auto DM is the worst ever.” -@LTSurf, Fit & Awesome (Note: this was , far and away, the overwhelming, top, top complaint from people about Twitter. Pay attention, tweeple.)
Twitter Pet Peeves

Yes, this is really how I answered.

  • “Corporate/company do-nothing customer service departments. Pretty useless.” -@MrJonBurk
  • “People who just tweet constantly – 100 or so times a day – just grabbing clips or what not and posting them. Just clogs my stream when I’m trying to get something good.” -@datatv
  • And a great article shared by @jspepper: “U.S. Companies ignore 80% of Twitter questions from customers… Brands are tired of responding to dumb questions on Twitter.” [more]

I also really dislike “laddering.” Never heard that term? Imagine 500 bloggers in a Facebook group. One posts “put a link to your twitter account here and let’s all follow each other!” Does it make your follow count go up? Sure. Does it earn you the engaged followers that brands who work with bloggers and influencers want you to have? Absolutely not. Do a lot of those bloggers go back and unfollow you later? Absolutely yes. Should you use an application like Crowdfire to methodically add and subtract your follows? I beg you not to.

Which brings me to the case of the curiously desperate blogger. A blogger who follows and unfollows me weekly. I assumed it was a pursuit to get me to follow her back but I wouldn’t. Eventually realized it was an auto thing via Crowdfire. Really irritating to me.

Fun spin, though: I declared I’d donate $20 to a charity every time she followed me again — so far charities have netted $160 out of me. I get to stick it to her and feel really good about myself. 😉

Twitter pet peeves

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: Social Media, Twitter, Twitter pet peeves

"Today I will be classy and elegant. Or, I will spill on my shirt and trip over things."

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