A quick look at my Pearltrees account tells me that I’ve accumulated a nice collection of Twitter-related applications. Have you heard of some of my favourites?
1. Formulists – I use this one to develop niche networks for myself and my clients. Choose the « Find Tweeps like someone else » option and Formulists will lead you discover some great profiles. Add them to your Twitter list, and start developing relationships from there!
2. Follower Wonk – This app is great for searching Twitter bios for keywords (ex: your brand or industry). It also draws comparisons between Twitter users, with venn diagrams showing overlaps in followers and influencers and charts tracking Twitter activity.
3. DoesFollow – This is a nice, simple tool that lets you know if Person A is following Person B. Handy if you want to be doubly sure your DM will reach your favourite journalist or blogger, or if you want to get a sense of the impact a tweet or retweet can have. Twitter can be like a cocktail party. Sometimes it’s nice when someone can introduce you to that fetching creature across the room.
4. TweetPsych – This app gives you the « psychological » profile of any Twitter user. Far from wanting to play armchair therapist, I use this to get a sense of who any given Twitter user is – what he or she is interested in etc. Bios are one thing. An analysis of tweets to build a profile is another. In case you’re curious, I tweet about media 47% more often than the average user and about learning 8% more. If you’re looking for someone who tweets about leisure, I’m apparently not your girl. I tweet about leisure activities 70% less than the average user. Hrm .. I’m not sure that’s a good sign. On the other hand, @pmharper tweets about money, work and leisure 276%, 210% and 126% more often than the average user and reflects anxiety 86% less than the average user. No comment.
5. Foller – If you want to get an idea of what the influencers you’ve identified are interested in these days, Foller is the one-stop shop for you. Particularly interesting for hashtags. It also displays a map showing geographical influence. I’m popular in Canada, the US, Europe .. and India! (Hi Rajesh!)
6. TweetReach – I’ll often use a special hashtag or trackable URL like budurl or bit.ly on Twitter. When I want to have an idea of how far those tweets might have reached, I plug the unique identifier URL into TweetReach. The free version of this app has its limitations, but it’s a nice start.
7. TweetEffect – Curious to know what kinds of tweets make people start or stop following you? Tweet Effect your last 170 or so updates and highlights those where you gained and lost. I suppose making a second #rapture joke on Saturday was too much for some. I lost 7 followers with what I thought was a link to a cute video. Strangely enough, a link to a photo I took of my tonkinese earned me a new follower. Proof that, online at least, cute cats win over zombies everytime.
8. Nearby Tweets – Hyperlocal is trendy for a reason. Find out what tweets are originating near you or in cities around the world using this Twitter app. When an important story hits — the Mumbai terrorist attacks for example — you can target the city (Mumbai) and keywords (Taj, terrorist etc) that are of particular interest.
9. Keepstream – I’m always on the look out for good ways to present Twitter content to clients. Keepstream lets you curate tweets, get a glimpse of hyperlinked content, add commentary and then share the content on Twitter or Facebook. There’s an embed code so the content can be published on a website or blog. This app has potential. I’d like to see a premium version that would allow me to share content only with specified users, like my clients and colleagues. This would make the comment field that much more useful. Still, it’s not a bad start.
10. The Archivist – Tweets are fleeting. Twitter search only goes back so far and no third party application I know of guarantees it can deliver the full archive of Twitter search results going back the 5 or so years Twitter has been around. Cue The Archivist. Sure, it’s no time traveller, and no, it doesn’t have access to Twitter’s pipeline, but it does get you started and gives you some insight into the identity of the top users chatting about your brand, top related keywords and top URLs. I depend on platforms like Sysomos’ MAP, but it’s nice to be able to complement a paid service like that with a free service like this.
What are your favourite Twitter apps?
MédiaCamp est de retour! La 2e édition de ce camp pour journalistes et autres personnes intéressées par l’évolution des médias à l’ère des médias sociaux se déroulera le 28 mai au même endroit que l’an dernier, c’est à dire au Coeur des sciences de l’UQAM.
Parmi les conférenciers au programme: Patrick Leduc, Pierre Tremblay, Lisa-Marie Noël, Nadine Maturin, Stéphane Bousquet, Jennifer Nachshen, Bruno Boutot, Isabelle Lopez, Michel Munger et Patrice Leroux.
Merci à Mathieu Lavallée, Michel Munger, Laurent Maisonnave et Liz Ostroff pour l’organisation de ce bel événement. À ne pas manquer!
Derek K. Miller, blogueur influent de Burnaby C.B., est décédé hier, après une lutte acharnée contre le cancer. Père de deux filles et mari dévoué, ce musicien produisait de la musique libre de droits pour utilisation dans les baladodiffusions et bloguait sur des sujets variés, dont la science, la technologie, sa famille et sa maladie. Les proches de M. Miller ont publié ce matin un billet d’adieu qu’il avait rédigé quelque temps avant sa mort. Cet ultime billet fait présentement le tour de la blogosphère et touche des milliers de lecteurs. Tellement que son site n’a pas pu supporter le volume de trafic. Au moment de l’écriture de ces lignes, le site PenMachine.com était hors ligne.
Pourquoi l’évoquer sur ce blogue?
Parce que la disparition de ce blogueur nous rappelle que dernière chaque blogueur que nous identifions comme étant un « influenceur », il existe un individu qui vit, qui aime, qui souffre et qui connaît des moments de grand bonheur. Un être mortel, qui compte pour la communauté qu’il a tissé autour de lui.
Lorsqu’une entreprise décide de se lancer dans l’aventure des médias sociaux en menant une campagne de relations auprès des blogueurs, les responsables des communications ne doivent jamais perdre de vue que les blogueurs ne sont pas des journalistes. Ils ne sont pas des professionnels embauchés par une entreprise médiatique pour produire du contenu qui sera vendu à côté de publicités dans un grand quotidien ou à la télévision. Ils sont motivés uniquement par leur passion. Leur œuvre est forcément intime. Forcément personnel. Et ces passionnés forment des communautés – des tribus – caractérisées par des liens serrés et tissées avec chaque commentaire. Avec chaque hyperlien.
Dans les séances d’introduction aux médias sociaux que j’offre à mes clients existants et potentiels, je parle immanquablement de la notion de tribu. Je considère qu’il est essentiel de comprendre que les médias sociaux permettent à des tribus de se former selon des champs d’intérêt, et ce indépendamment de distances et de frontières. Nous ne devons jamais oublier que derrière chaque blogueur que nous approchons dans l’espoir d’obtenir de la visibilité pour les entreprises et marques de nos clients, il existe un être passionné qui s’investit souvent corps et âme dans la production de contenu qui l’intéresse et qui intéresse les membres de sa tribu.
Collègues: Mettons de côté nos listes et engageons nous pleinement dans la conversation en ligne ainsi que les rencontres hors-ligne. Entrons en dialogue avec le blogueur en tant qu’individu. Prenons le temps de le connaître. Tissons des liens avec lui. Démontrons du respect pour son temps, son investissement personnel et sa passion. Gagnons sa confiance. Faisons nos preuves et démontrons-lui que nous méritons d’être un membre à part entière de sa communauté. De sa tribu.
Et lorsqu’un membre de notre tribu signe son dernier billet, pleurons-le ensemble.
Derek K. Miller, repose en paix.
The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don’t look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same. – Derek K. Miller
A few years ago, I had to drive as far as Ottawa to attend a social media event. Now, there are more social media events than you can shake a stick at (where does that expression come from, anyway?) including the two Montreal events I organize. My absolute personal favourite, though, is Podcasters Across Borders – or PAB to its friends. I was at another kind of event this past weekend – my brother’s wedding – and spoke with another PAB veteran. We agreed the people who attend PAB are weird … in the best possible way. This weirdness completely explains why I love PAB so much. While other social media events drown in startup and marketing presentations focussed on monetization, PAB reminds me every time of the beauty of social media.
You’ll meet actors-who-podcast, knitters-who-podcast, scientists-who-podcast, geeks-who-podcast, photographers-who-podcast, comics-who-podcast, educators-who-podcast, comedians-who-podcast … and the list goes on. They’ll impress you with their passion and commitment. They’ll inspire you.
PAB has broadened its scope to include everything social media, so the non-podcasters among you will find the kind of weirdness that will make you happy at PAB too.
I didn’t attend last year, so don’t know if Ottawa has the same charm Kingston did, but I suspect that it’s the people, not the venue, that make the event. I’m looking forward to finding out.
You can register here.
Embrace your inner (and outer) weirdness. See you at PAB.
