Dahle Communication

Effective use of Twitter by businesses

I've spoken a couple of times about the importance of using Twitter correctly over the past couple of years and while some people have not learned that lesson, others are starting to.

Yesterday I swung by a Casey's General Store gas station to get a bottle of coke and there in the cooler were glass bottles of coke with actual sugar in them (instead of the usual corn syrup that is used today in place of actual sugar). So when I tweeted that I found my new favorite gas station, mentioned the coke and included a picture of the Coke bottle I didn't expect anything to happen except for some of my friends to maybe make a comment.

What I was surprised by was what happened next. First, Casey's replied to me and said "Thanks Travis!" I thought that was cool. Just a simple, thank you. It didn't surprise me that much, but it was still neat to see someone was at least using twitter to be an interactive voice for a gas station.

What happened then just made me chuckle and I thought was great on their part. The Gas Stop decided to join in on the discussion by responding to me with "Retro Coke is available at The Gas Stop at 57th and Western—on sale for 59¢ each!"

So, they are not just saying hey come and buy from us - they saw that I loved the fact that Coke with real sugar is what I liked, they informed me that they also have it - and it's on sale for 59 cents!

Great job by both sides. While the Gas Stop threw in some advertising, they were making it personal by saying - 'hey, we've also got retro coke and its on sale." Needless to say, I'm going to swing by there today and check it out.

Know who you are following on Twitter - don't just use Keywords

A little over a week ago I was at a beautiful outdoor wedding. The entire wedding party was dressed nice and very classy. Sadly, one of the guests was not. I won't describe the outfit, but let's just say it wouldn't be appropriate for anything but going to a club (and even then, I'm not sure).

After the service, I made some comment about the dress in response to a friend of mine who talked about what she wanted to wear to the wedding she was going to. Keep this in mind: this was the first time I have probably talked about weddings the entire time I've been on Twitter. I'm not in the wedding business, I don't have any kids who will be getting married for quite a long time and I just don't care that much about weddings (don't get me wrong, I like weddings and enjoy them, its just not something I think about on a weekly basis).

Because of my one comment on wedding, over the next week I had about 10 people follow me who dealt with weddings! Every time I just got irritated because I know that they were following me because they probably have a program that find people who mention 'wedding' and then automatically follow them. Needless to say, I didn't follow back.

This is one of those areas that it really does directly relate to public speaking: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!! You have to know your audience if your speech is going to be effective. If your audience has the background knowledge already, you can skip some basic things - if not, you need to include it. Are they young, old, what business are they in, etc. All of those questions are key to tweaking your speech so you can be more effective.

Twitter is the same way: make sure you understand who you are following if you want to engage in the community. Are you a communicator? Are you in Sioux Falls? Do you know me personally? Do you read my blog regularly? If you answered yes to any of those, then it might be a good idea to follow me. If you are following someone just because I used one keyword, chances are, I won't follow back and its hard to have a discussion with people, when they don't engage back in conversation.

Communicating with Twitter - don't waste the opportunity

 For a while last year I really got into Twitter. It offered someone like me a chance to communicate with people from around the world without having to e-mail them, facebook them, comment on blogs or anything else. I could find them on Twitter and have periodic conversations with them about great blogs we had seen or a great website and anything in-between.

It was great. I slowly built up people who I was following and who followed me around 100, then 200, then 300, then 400! I was getting some great feedback on certain questions I had. Then it got to be overload. Some people started using Twitter as a way to spam you with their 500 random thoughts that day or the 700 links they found that day. Basically, three or four people started filling up my feed that I would miss great content from people because it was being drowned out constantly by those few individuals who were posting constantly.

To fix this problem, I did two things - first I started a #purgethursday - I deleted anyone who decided they needed to fill up my tweetdeck with 10 posts all within a minute or two or those who I followed at one point, but had not been communicating with them in a while, and I didn't find anything useful on their posts. After a couple of weeks of this, it was great! My feeds were slowing down. I didn't miss great posts by people and I seemed to be able to communicate with people again.

The second step was creating lists. While I don't use the website a lot (mostly I use Tweetdeck) I do use it if I want to check on my lists. Twitter did a great job getting me to come back to their website because now I can click on one of my lists and I don't have to worry about certain people clogging up my feed because I have separated people to fit the areas I know them from.

These two steps have been great. I've gotten back onto Twitter, I no longer have people clogging up my feed and I am communicating on twitter again.

Communication is a tricky thing. Anyone can get onto Twitter and attempt to "communicate" with other people. Sadly, people waste this great opportunity. They use it to their own means and treat it as another form of advertising - i.e. interrupting our lives. Don't waste the opportunity that twitter can give you. Engage in the discussion. Be a part of the community. Don't be an obstacle that has to be purged.

How Twitter can used for good - Veterans help turns to social networks

At a mental health summit which opens Tuesday in Pierre, the North Dakota American Legion hopes to share its new program, "Courage Carries On," with South Dakota mental health providers and veterans' groups.

via www.argusleader.com

Reading the local Sioux Falls paper this morning (on-line, it's quite rare that I actually read the paper copy) I saw this interesting article and thought it was an important one to talk about. A Veterans group is going to start using Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets to try and reach other Veterans that might be struggling with mental health issues.

One of the saddest realities of war is that it does a lot of emotional and psychological damage to the brave men and women who are fighting those wars. What I consider to be even worse is that for the most part, we've ignored those soldiers struggles when they get back home. Luckily there are some groups, like the one talked about in the Argus Leader, who are reaching out to help.

This is one of the best parts of Social Media. With sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can reach out to people who you might never have met before and be able to have conversations with them. This is especially important if you live in a remote location where there are not a lot of people. When that happens, you can feel isolated and feel that no one else can relate to you. But with the power of the internet and the proper use of social media, you can connect with people.

That really is what communication is all about - connecting with people. Whether you are speaking in front of a group, talking one-on-one with someone or using social media like Twitter and Facebook - all of it is about connecting with one another.

I'm glad to see this Veterans group using social media. I hope they are successful. While some people use Twitter and Facebook as a means to expand their business or to show how many "friends" they have - it is a group like this that can show us what social media can truly accomplish.

Do we all need an editor?

While listening to the NFL pre-game shows on ESPN Radio on Sunday I realized something. The age of twitter, blogs and social media in general has created a paradox of sorts. All of us can within seconds share our thoughts with the world - that's the good news. The bad news - all of us can within seconds share our thoughts with the world!

Larry Fitzgerald, a wide-receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, is a super-star. He is regarded as one of the best wide-receivers in the game. After one game, his brother tweeted some not so nice things about the Cardinals quarterback. Needless to say it created some issues. One of the analysts discussing the topic later stated "In this day and age - there is no one to filter your words."

Unfortunately this is true. Too many people can say anything they want at anytime - without thinking of what they are saying. It is easy to type up a blog or add comments to a blog post or put something down on Twitter and hit the 'publish' or 'tweet' button. It takes minutes or seconds to do. This is what causes some disasters. Sometimes it is the heat of the moment that causes some anger to go through that shouldn't have or it is just typing to quickly that cause some mistakes in our language.

Communication is a very important tool. However, in this day and age of instant communication, we have a tendency to forget that point. Before blogs came along, if you wanted something published, you had to either be a professional writer - meaning you went to school specifically to write - or you wrote a letter to the editor. In both cases, those articles, letters - communication - were all edited. Blogs are, for the most part, not edited. As my friend Michael states "We all need an editor."

Don't let a bad communication experience hurt you or your business. Before you put something up on a blog or comment on a blog - make sure to edit it! We can't put a filter on our mouths when talking, but we can put an editor to our written words.

Embrace Church 'Embracing' New Technology - How Twitter can be used for good

via www.keloland.com

There have been numerous articles and blogs written about Twitter over the past year. Some of those articles have been good and others have been bad. I have commented several times about twitter and how it can be used for good. Embrace Church in Sioux Falls is doing just that. Embrace Church is a fairly new church that is not your typical setting. Pastor Adam Weber is a young pastor who wanted to build a church that can become a place for a younger generation that has increasingly become disillusioned with organized religion. 

For full disclosure, Adam is my first cousin and I have been able to talk with him on occasions about Embrace and what they are trying to accomplish. I like some of his ideas, but mostly I love his approach. He wants to communicate with the audience and have a conversation with them. He doesn't just want to preach AT them, he wants them to be a part of the communication process. This is why he has encouraged his parishioners to use twitter during the service. It is this feedback that he can use to try and make the service even better.

I think all of us in the business world can learn something from Pastor Weber's approach. Let's not shrink away from feedback and twitter, but embrace it (no pun intended). We should try to expand our communication to include our participants. If we can do that, then maybe we can increase our own following for our businesses.

Stop Advertising and Start Communicating

One of the things I like about social media is that it is getting businesses and people to communicate with each other. Twitter is a great example. On Twitter, I can have a conversation with someone or several people. It is not a normal conversation where there is an immediate feedback on what you have tweeted, but it is a long-term conversation. Sometimes there is immediate feedback with the RT's and DM's, but for the most part, it is a long-term building process.

Old media is nothing like this. Businesses who use old media advertise at us instead of communicating with us. They interrupt us. Commercials, ads in newspapers, billboards, radio ads, etc. all interrupt what we were doing. We were constantly being interrupted when watching a program on TV, reading something in a paper or listening to the radio.

Unfortunately, some people have not realized that social media is NOT old media. It is not something that should interrupt my day. This morning when I opened up TweetDeck to join in on some conversations I was being interrupted by old media types. Reading things like "3 steps to Make More Money - $125 in 24 hrs Guarantee" or "Who's interested in working part time to earn a few thousand to several thousand dollars a month working from home?" and "I just become a member of this AWESOME site that gets you TONS of followers." I felt like I was reading my junk e-mail inbox!

To those of you doing this: please stop! Stop using social media to promote yourself this way. All it makes me do is un-follow you. I want to be in a conversation with you, not be a target for advertising. Trust me when I say I am not the only one. Brett Duncan at Marketing In Progress has also talked about this in his post "Stop Shouting on Twitter." Johnathan Thomas of Presentation Advisors also posted about it and did a great job of tying it to giving a presentation (which I didn't realize until he added his comments - thanks John!).

 

Our advice is simple: start communicating and then we'll listen to what you have to say.

Travis

Repetition is the Key - Using Twitter as an example

One of the key methods of public speaking that I learned early is the idea of repetition - you have to repeat yourself a lot when speaking because there is a good chance that people either didn't hear you the first time or they weren't paying attention. When speaking, you have to repeat yourself to ensure that the key ideas you want to get across are remembered.

This can apply to Twitter as well. In fact, I am going to use twitter in two ways to describe what I am talking about. First off, lets look at how to use Twitter to promote certain sites or posts of your own and then using Twitter enough times to emphasize how repetition is used to increase web traffic.

First off, lets look at how people use Twitter to promote their sites. If you have ever followed people on Twitter you notice a couple of things. First off, there are those who tweet waaaay too much. I really don't need 40 of your posts on Twitter clogging up my feed. What this has taught me though is that your posts can get lost in the mix on Twitter. Let's say I post something on Twitter early in the morning - if someone isn't on twitter or checking their tweetdeck or other device, they are going to miss that tweet if they are following several people or just a couple of people using Twitter who post 200 tweets a day. Instead of having it get lost there are a couple of things you can do. If you post something on Twitter that people like they will RT it so others can read about it. However, if you know how Twitter works, you know that when someone RT's it, that doesn't mean your followers on Twitter will see it. What you can do is go in and post onto Twitter three or four times that day. You don't want to post the same exact thing though. You want to change things up. Phrase it differently or ask a different compelling question that might trigger some thought. Repetition - that way people will be able to see your post throughout the day and will hopefully click on your links.

The second way to look at repetition and Twitter is SEO and repetition. In doing some looking around the web and getting involved in things like Alltop and Speaking Pro Central, I was interested to see some blogs getting a pretty high ranking for a certain word like Twitter. When checking out their blog, I noticed that they used the word Twitter a lot! This helped with their search engine optimization because they used that word (in this case Twitter) more in their post, so it increased their SEO. If you have noticed, I am using this post as a bit of an experiement. I usually don't use a single word that much, but thought it would be an interesting experiement to see if using the word Twitter that often really would help - my guess is that it will be okay.

Remember some of those web ideas when you are speaking. Most people are passive listeners and will not catch everything that you throw at them. Most of the time you will need to emphasize things a few times for them to latch onto it.

Travis

Are You Focused on the Right Things?

A great web program called Wordle allows users to type in words or a website and create a Word Cloud from the text. You can personalize it, change the colors, the style, how many words you want to use, etc. There are two things that I really like about the program:

1. The visualization is just cool - and the fact that you can put in your brand's colors also helps (it would be nice if they would allow you to chose your brand's fonts as well, but I'm trying not to be picky).

2. It let's you see what you are talking about and what key words you are using the most.

The second part is what I wanted to focus on today. I copied and pasted all of my blog entries that I have made over the past 4 months. I cut all of the dates and the bookmark buttons. There is an option for you to click to remove common words, which I did as well.

What I have left with is a visualization of the things that I have talked about. The first image is a 200 word limit, the second image has only 20 words. This allowed me to see which words I have been using the most and which ones I was not using.

Let's first take a look at the larger image. The first thing I noticed was the word 'people.' I liked this a lot because the focus of Dahle Communication Group really is on how people communicate with each other and how that affects our lives. We want people to be the focus of our business. I was very happy to see that as the top one. Other words that stuck out included presentations, good, great, presentation, Twitter, and blog. All of those I was glad to see because those are things that are important to communication. However, I also noticed the words: something, lot, one, things and going. While those words are not necessarily bad, I am now more aware of them and am going to try to cut down on the use of those words: especially something, which was quite big.

The second image is neat because it is stripped down to the top 20 words. While those words were bigger in the first image compared to the other words, sometimes you just need to cut out the fat of an image to truly see what is going on.

If you are working on a presentation or a speech, you should use Wordle or a similar program. What it can do is tell you what you are focusing on. Are you using key words that you want people to remember? Are you using phrases that will confuse people? Putting your speeches and/or documents through a program that tells you which ones you are using the most will give you some perspective as to what you are doing and can help you fine tune your message. 

Others have already recognized the value of using wordle as a tool. Carolyn Elefant of myshingle.com, Nan Hu of The Daily Princetonian, Emily Cagle Communications, Sentence First and Inside Out are just a few of the blogs that have been talking about Wordle and using it themselves. This gives you a good idea as to what impact it is already having on the way people think and re-fine their information.

Travis

Articles you should have read

Instead of delving into something new today, I wanted to highlight some of the great posts and articles that I have found over the past couple of weeks that I felt needed to be discussed more. With so many posts out there, it is sometimes hard to find the good articles and a lot of times someone will post a great blog and for whatever reason, it is just missed. I'm not saying this happened with these posts, I just wanted to highlight a few of those that I really enjoyed and want people to check out.

1. Audience on the Stage - Duarte Blog

Chris Iufer of the Duarte Blog talks about getting the audience to participate and helping Nancy Duarte prepare for the Web 2.0 Expo. They wanted people at the expo to be able to answer questions without having to shout out the answers. They looked at Twitter, SMS Polls and a Chat room. Its an interesting discussion looking at the feasibility of using Twitter in your presentations.

2. Lessons for 6th Graders (and us) - The You Blog

John Windsor has a great article about working with 6th graders and giving them advice on how to prepare slides for their presentations on the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs. If you have ever had to give a presentation to middle schoolers you will relate to John's post - and even if you haven't, you should still read this. 

3. 1. Experience the world instead of talking about experienceing the world - The first of 21 Principles from Metacool

Diego Rodriguez is putting together quite a series on his blog Metacool. He is going through 21 principles that you should follow. The link above will take you to the first one and as of this post he was on number 9. These are not just one or two sentences of advice either. He goes into a lot of detail to talk about them.

4. 27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis - Flowing Data

If you have never read Nathan's blog Flowing Data, this is the perfect post to start reading. I like statistics and numbers, but being able to see those numbers placed visually and in a compelling manner is even better. If you have had a hard time putting your numbers into a presentation in a compelling way, take some tips from Nathan and attempt to do what he does.

5. PowerPoint make-over artist tricks for newbies - Slides that stick

One thing I love about this blog is that it is usually concise and is updated almost everyday. This means that I will usually learn something or have something make me think on a daily basis. This post is really good if you are just getting started with presentations.

6. Ashton Kutcher, CNN and the Twitter Celebrity Effect - Marketing In Progress

Brett Duncan has some great thoughts on Twitter and its impact as of lately. He also adds some great points in the comments section about the future of Twitter. A great start to a blog that will have you looking at marketing in a new way (and yes I stole this idea of putting together a few of my favorite links from him...thanks Brett for the idea).

Is Twitter Getting too big? A lesson for your speeches

A recent post by Brett Duncan of Marketing In Progress really made me think about twitter. It wasn't even the post so much as his comments at the bottom of the page. When discussing the growth of twitter he states "Early adopters like a product as long as they are the early adopters for it. Once it reaches that majority status, early adopters start looking for something else to adopt . . . early." 

This is an interesting thought. Is Twitter getting too big? Is it starting to grow too much? I am guessing that those who are invested in the growth of twitter would say no, but I think it is a fair question. I think Brett's point that people who are early adopters of something do tend to get upset when whatever they have adopted becomes mainstream. I equate this to the music fan who thinks that their favorite band was much better when no one knew who they were.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure what I would think of Twitter. I was a little skeptical at first and didn't know what all the fuss was about. However, after trying it out I have really liked it and use it almost every day to keep up on news, new blog posts and just banter with other people. I was not one of the "early adopters" but have sort of jumped on the bandwagon just before it exploded with the likes of Oprah and Ashton Kutcher. However, I have noticed the explosion of twitter as of late and I'm not sure what to think of it. Will people leave? I think they will. At what point will that saturation get? If you know then you are a smarter person than I.

Take a lesson about Twitter when you are preparring a speech. Know when to say when. You want to leave the audience waiting for more. If you start putting too many things in your speech or your presentation you are going to start losing your audience. If people start to feel overwhelmed or that you are putting too many things in your speech, they will start to lose interest and they are going to be looking for a way out to something better.

Is this going to happen to twitter? Probably not for quite a while, and I am sure they will do just fine. However, something will probably come around that will challenge it, much like they have challenged facebook. Were you an early user of Twitter? Are you starting to feel like Twitter is getting over-exposed? If they are, is it that big of a deal? Are you looking for something new?

Travis

Don't Wait to Improve Yourself - A lesson in trackbacking

Over the past couple of months I have gotten into blogging quite a bit. During that time I have learned a lot about the blogging world and what I need to do. For example, you want to blog on a regular basis: once a week, twice a week - whatever your schedule, try to keep it consistent. It's hard to get people to come back to your blog if they have no idea when you're going to post again. Tools such as linking to other sites, adding images and videos are useful as well. One key tool that can be very useful is the TrackBack. Referencing someone else's blog and having it posted on their site is a great way to increase traffic. I knew that this was a good thing to do, but I had yet to use it -- that was until Monday. On Monday I posted an article on Twitter vs. Facebook and had it trackbacked to a post from Seth Godin on his blog about what makes things better. Doing this increased traffic on my blog by a significant amount!

I knew something like this would help me, but since I had not used it, I was just putting it off. Now that I have seen how beneficial it can be, I will use it again and not just to help myself, but to hopefully increase traffic on someone else's site as well.

Communication can do the same thing for you. Being able to effectively communicate will increase your business prospects as much as trackbacking can help your blog. It is a tool that you need to use if you want to be successful. But don't do what I did with trackbacking and wait. Putting things off will only delay the inevitable. Unfortunately, we are creatures of habit and we don't like to change. Why should you get a speech coach or work on your presentations if you haven't in the past? The reason is that it will only help you. In this time of economic turmoil and businesses struggling and unemployment rising, you need to be able to take your speeches and presentations to the next level. Don't wait like I did - you'll only wish you would have started earlier.

Travis

Twitter vs Facebook - Why Simplicity Matters

I have essentially stopped going to facebook on a regular basis. I check things when I get a message sent to me. Once I'm done with that message I might spend a minute looking at things, but then I leave. For me, facebook has become an overgrown blob of applications that take up way too much of my time. I just don't have time to fill out every survey or application like mob wars and lil' green plants that get sent to me everyday. If I was still in college, maybe. Being 32, married with 2 kids, a real job, starting a business and trying to golf from time to time means my time is valuable and I don't want to waste it on facebook.

This sentiment seems to be growing among those of us who are social media savvy. Sam Diaz from ZDNet.com shares my thoughts on the subject. Both of us are spending a lot more time on Twitter. In fact, Twitter's growth in the past year was 1,382 percent! That's quite an increase. Facebook isn't hurting though, they saw their growth increase by 228 percent. I don't think they have to worry yet about losing people. However, I do think it is a word of caution to Facebook. Myspace was the biggest social network out there until Facebook came around and they saw a 4 percent decrease in users over the past year.

Seth Godin(who actually doesn't Twitter, but I am sure people wished he did) has a great blog this morning on what is better. He makes a great point that it is up to the consumer to decide which is "better." To me, and a lot of people who are annoyed with all of the junk that comes with facebook, Twitter is better. Granted, I can't post pictures or videos or play mob wars...but really, I don't want to. I like things that are simple, clean and easy to use and so do most people. 

A lesson in communication is a simple one: make sure your message is clean simple and easy to understand. I don't mean simple as in 'dumbed-down.' It means that your message has been stripped down to its core. If you try to put too many bells and whistles into your speech because you think it might help improve your speech or presentation...don't! It is one of PresentationZen's key tenets to presentations - simplicity! Otherwise you might find people starting to leave your speeches the way that they are leaving facebook.

Travis

Are things like Twitter, Texting, Facebook and Blogging hurting communication?

That is the question that I have been asking myself lately.  For people under a certain age, we are growing up with technology.  I'm 32 and didn't have access to the Internet until I went to college.  I didn't have a phone that texted until I was 30 (and didn't even text much until I was 31) and didn't start blogging or using twitter until I was 32.  People younger than me are growing up with it in middle school!  I am not someone who is opposed to technology and thinks it is all evil and kids are dumber because of it.  I mean, I love technology (the iPod has been one of the greatest inventions ever!) and I am by no means saying we are worse off than before.  What I am concerned about is the human-to-human interaction that we seem to be losing because of the increased use of technology.  I almost feel like we are moving towards a Johnny Mnemonic type of life (or for your RPG people, Shadowrun) where we start becoming part computer/part human.

Blogging is a great example.  While blogging itself is quite harmless, the comments on blogs or videos posted on youtube, etc. can become a diatribe of name-calling idiocy.  Everyone knows what I am talking about here.  You can go to any political article or blog and you will find under the comments section (if it is open and not monitored) comments to people that would never be said in a face-to-face conversation.  The reason for this is simply the fact that we have lost the human interaction of communication.  When people put things on-line they don't put as much thought into the process and put up something that is either degrading to the author of the blog or another commenter.  

This problem goes beyond comments on blogs though.  When people send e-mails and texts, they don't put as much thought into the process (in fact, gmail now has an option that you can cancel your sent message after a few seconds if you 'accidentally' hit the send button) and end up sending something that they regret later.  There is also the issue of context.  When you talk to someone face to face, you can read their body language and voice to see if they are serious or joking.  In an e-mail or text, that is very hard to do.  A lot of research has shown that the majority of our communication is actually non-verbal (body language, gestures, voice characteristics, etc) and we don't get that over e-mail and text.

While there are other problems, there is an easy solution: make communication more human.  Think about what you are going to say when you type up an e-mail or a text.  Think about what comments you are putting down on someones blog.  Try to meet with people and talk with them and listen to them (listening is another problem all together).  Try to make communication more human.

Travis

Twitter getting so big its being mocked...or at least a good comic source

Being a kid at heart, I try to keep up to date with a few comic strips that I enjoy.  While they are no Calvin & Hobbes or The Far Side they do keep me laughing and remembering to not get too serious.  In the past two weeks two of those cartoons, Doonesbury and Fox Trot, have sort of mocked or paid tribute to Twitter.

Additionally, listening to ESPN Radio on my drive to work I got to hear the hosts of Mike & Mike in the Morning talk about Twitter.  I guess I should say they tried to talk about it since they had no idea what it was.  People were sending in messages correcting them and helping them out a little bit.  The hosts only reference was to Facebook and someone even sent in a message saying "Facebook is so 2008."  

In the Doonesbury comic strip, the news journalist Roland Heley keeps updating his twitter status while he is suppose to be reporting a story.  The entire week is spent following his thoughts and comments on twitter instead of him reporting the news.  It was a complete mockery of what Twitter is and it exemplified how bad twitter can be and how out of control some people have gotten with updating everything that they are doing and every thought that they have (the Monday strip of Doonesbury has Roland tweeting 'about to scratch myself').  Shaquille O'Neal actually updated his status during halftime of one of his games, which seems a bit excessive.

While Doonesbury showed the excess of it, I liked how Fox Trot showed two things: how overuse can hinder you and how it can help you.  The kids benefited because they could hide before the parent got to their room and the parent was hurt by it because she couldn't find the kids.  

So needless to say, Twitter has not only arrived, but it has gotten so big that it is now being mocked/paid tribute to in the world of comic strips.

As far as communication and presentation goes regarding twitter, I just wanted to say this: make sure you use Twitter to your advantage instead of a hindrance.  Don't get sidetracked like Roland Heley and tweet every single thought because you can, but use it like the kids in Fox Trot -- to your advantage.  Use it to get a step up on the competition, keep informed on issues or other blogs and get your name out there.  Or if anything else, know enough about it so you can understand the Sunday Cartoon strips.

White Noise - are you adding to it?

Today I had a chance to do a lot of searching on the web and catch up to the blogs that I like to follow, got an Alltop page (now you can make your own personal Alltop page), caught up on some news, tweeted a few times, responded to some e-mails, listened to some NPR on the way to work...and still tried to get some work done.  What I realized is that there is a TON of information out there for us to process.  So the question I have for people who are speaking and presenting is simply this:  Are you adding to the white noise that so many of us deal with on a day-to-day basis or are you giving speeches and presentations that are leaving a mark with the audience?

Let's say you WANT to leave a mark with the audience...how do you do that is the next question.  If you want to truly be successful there is a lot of things that you need to do, but here are a couple of suggestions to help you get started.

1.  Set yourself apart with good design for your speeches.

You can do this in several ways.  First off, pick up Garr Reynolds book Presentation Zen or any of the books that are listed on this blog.  All of them contain some great tips on presentation ideas and how you can incorporate great design ideas into your presentations instead of the typical bullet-point presentations that are out there.  Secondly, read some blogs on good design.  There are a lot out there and my blogroll contains quite a few of them, but I would suggest Ethos3 as a good starting point.

2.  Be different

Does this mean wearing a clown suit?  No.  What it does mean is find something that you can do to set yourself apart from the pack.  One suggestion that I have is to use something other than PowerPoint if you are going to give a presentation.  A great new software called Prezi is in the beta phase right now and has great potential to overturn how people present.  If you can get started early using the software before everyone else, you can set yourself apart and be one of the fore-runners in this new technology.

3.  Engage People

This is done on a couple of levels.  First off, when you are presenting you need to engage your audience by talking to them instead of at them.  You can do this by working on your eye contact with the audience and making sure to pay attention to them and not your images behind you.  Additionally, engage them with on-line mediums such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Brett Duncan wrote a good blog about this titled "Exploiting vs. Exploring."  Don't exploit the use of these services just to build a name for yourself, but engage people with them.

Those are three simple things you can do to start setting yourself apart from all of the white noise out there: Have good design, be different and engage people.  While there is quite a bit more to it than that, this is at least a start.  

Twitter - Using it effectively versus ignoring it

Twitter is fast becoming a huge trend - when you get talked about in a mocking manner by the Daily Show, you know you've made it!  As speakers though, twitter brings up a lot of questions.  First off, if people are checking their blackberries or iphones and twittering during your speech, they are not going to be listening as intently if they were paying attention to you.  

So, you have two choices as a speaker in regards to twitter:

1.  Be like Jon Stewart in the video below where he is the "Old Man Stewart shakes his fist at Twitter." 

or

2.  Embrace Twitter as a means to improve communication with your audience.

The first option will only make you upset with people and make you feel powerless as your audience members drift off and check their twitter status.  However, embracing Twitter will allow you to improve your presentations -- if you do it in an effective manner.

Olivia Mitchell posted a guest blog on Chris Spagnuolo's Edgehopper blog on 7 ways to use twitter during your presentations.  I really liked some of the suggestions and think it is a great way for you to engage your audience.  Some of the suggestions include polling your audience, asking questions during the presentation, getting input on your ideas and having evaluations done.  One of the biggest benefits of using twitter for all of these is that the audiences responses have to be 140 characters or less!  Believe me, that is not a lot of words, so people have to condense their ideas to their core.

One catch to some of her suggestions:  you need to get onto twitter and get used to it!  For some of us, this is a big step.  I have only recently gotten onto twitter and I didn't quite get it at first, but do see the potential.  So, in order to effectively use Twitter during your speeches and use it to your advantage, you have to be used to it.  You don't want to step in front of an audience and try to use twitter for the first time...you will not look good!

So, you have a choice: use Twitter to your advantage or to your disadvantage.  To me the choice is an easy one.  

- Travis

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