How to Join the Delaware Twitter Community – Super Easy Edition

OK, I’m working with a lot of people who are starting to see the benefits of getting on Twitter and joining in the Delaware Twitter community. Once people get in, they realize how helpful, useful, encouraging, informative, and great this community is – it’s just the joining part that seems to be a small hurdle. More…

Why #FollowFriday ? How it’s used #FF #NetDe #Delaware

I was asked this question on twitter by a new Delaware tweeter, “can you teach me what #ff stands for and how do I use it ?”
Well this site is all about, asking questions about Social Media, and getting answers. So here we go.

First off #ff is a shortened version of #FollowFriday, it saves some key strokes and room to allow you to add more mentions to your tweet.

Why would you use #FollowFriday, or #FF, first a little background:

“What if you didn’t know who to follow on Twitter? Would you randomly start following people? Would you follow people you see mentioned by those you already follow? Most likely you would ask your friends for recommendations since you can trust that your friends will suggest people who are worth following. Which is exactly how FollowFriday began.

In mid-January, FollowFriday began with a simple tweet:

The idea is to think of interesting people you already follow and recommend them to others.

Mykl Roventine suggested the hashtag #followfriday, and a few friends (Chris Brogan, Erin Kotecki Vest, Aaron Brazell and Jim Kukral) helped spread the word. On the first FollowFriday, there were almost two #followfriday tweets per second at its peak.

#FollowFriday: The Trend That Kept Trending
By Saturday morning, there was no trace of FollowFriday. A one-off fad, perhaps?

Then late the next Thursday night, suddenly #followfriday tweets began to appear in foreign languages! It seemed that FollowFriday was back. Now, every Friday, people suggest other people to follow. Here is a chart of the hours that #followfriday trended each week since it began:

What’s interesting is not that #followfriday trends for the full Friday each Friday, but that the bottom of the spikes have begun to spread out. Meaning that #followfriday is beginning to spread into Thursdays and Saturdays, US time. In other words: #followfriday is international.

Why #FollowFriday Works
FollowFriday is successful because of three main factors:

1. It’s easy. It takes little effort to send a tweet, something people do dozens of times a day.

2. It’s participatory. You don’t need to be part of the “Twitterati” to participate. You can suggest one person or 100 people. You can get endorsements from one person or a hundred people.

3. It’s karmic and it feels good. It’s a great feeling to simply say, “I think this person is great. You should follow them.”“

Courtesy of Mashables, read the whole story

Recently, in Delaware, some people have started to add a brief explanation of why you should follow the tweeps in their #FollowFriday mentions. This helps others to know why they should follow them as well.

Oh and one last thing, generally, if you are mentioned in a #FollwFriday tweet, it’s a courtesy to thank the person who mentioned you.

Social Media Training Comes to Southern #Delaware #NetDe #KentDe #SussexDe

A long awaited event is coming to Southern Delaware. Thanks to Phil Woods aka @SmallBizPhil, creator of Where In Delaware and Downtown Milford, Inc. @DwnTwnMilford for bringing this type of training to Southern Delaware. In the past, Social Media training has widely taken place in the Wilmington area and some in the Lewes / Rehoboth areas.

There are a growing number of businesses in Southern Delaware, particularly in Lower Kent and western Sussex Counties, that want to know more about how Social Media can benefit them. By bringing this type of training to the area, it is hoped to get more and more of Delaware businesses accessible via Social Media and grow the steadily expanding Delaware Social Media presence into these areas. Hopefully this event will be the first of many more Social Media training opportunities throughout the area.

If you or a someone you know is confused about how to move forward with social media or if your social media efforts feel like a remote outpost rather than an attraction for your customers, then this event is for you.

In addition to discussing what social media is and isn’t, their will be a discussion of the top 5 strategic questions that should be answered before you start your social media campaigns. Additional topics will include how to deal with online threats and measuring social media success. A 60-minute presentation will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A session with a panel of local social media aficionados.

This event will be held on August 24th. from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Abbott’s Grill, located at 249 NE Front Street, Milford, DE. There is limited seating available so please go to http://sussexsocialmedia.eventbrite.com/ and get your FREE tickets.

Thanks to Phil Woods and Elizabeth Purcell of Downtown Milford, Inc. for setting up this event. Special thanks to 23rd. & 5th. for sponsoring and to Abbott’s Grill, our host for the evening.