Comments on: Twittered to death? Social media suicide is painless

By: Nothing’s permanent, not even death. – The Buzz Bin

Nothing’s permanent, not even death. – The Buzz Bin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:02:33 +0000

[...] “Nothing’s permanent, not even death.” – from the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. So what if you want to do more than take a break from social media? Now with morbid flair there is a new tool encouraging users to clean the slate and “meet their real neighbors again.” The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, apparently seems to be working, Facebook recently blocked the service from their network, citing privacy violation. However given how the service works, by blanking out entries rather than deleting, I think it may help expose the fact that it’s not affecting the privacy of users – rather the information being gathered by advertisers. [...]

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:47:12 +0000

Email lists are not as hip as they used to be. People are bombarded. They will unsubscribe and say, "Sorry — I'm on too many lists," and that's ok with me, I understand. Just last Friday I sent out a Twitter message saying that we had a few openings left for Saturday and then I included our phone number (make it easy on your Twitter readers) and one of my local followers called up and took 3 services! It was pretty much the power of suggestion. She had had a rough week and my message kinda hit home. So there was no discounting. Just someone who was tired and worn out and me with a little "suggestion." JoAnn, you can discount the last minute services but really only do that once in a while. If that's all you use it for people will not follow anymore. Make it a real special deal too — like only 2 openings available type thing. It's fun! And really connects you with locals and others around the world too… neat. –Jan (BTW I find Twitter is fast and quick — email I have to put more thought into.)

By: Seth Gardenswartz

Seth Gardenswartz — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:43:44 +0000

Thanks Janet! "Unfriending" or "unfollowing" (see On Language -- Why Does Justice Antonin Scalia Hate the Word 'Choate'? for how new words are created by prefix) is the homicide of social media. Your radio geek is a good example of how you will loose the business followers you are looking for by over-sharing. I am really interested in feedback from JoAnn's question too. I kind of wonder what kind of traffic you get from twitter that you would not get from email. Perhaps a wider audience, but if your opted-in clients are not responding to your emails (or if you have not build or maintained your list) that is certainly the sign of another problem you should address.

By: JoAnn

JoAnn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:49:41 +0000

Have any of you utilzed Twitter for announcing discounted aptmt timeslots on a slower week to fill up your schedule? If so, are there any do or donts that you suggest?

By: Janet

Janet — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:21:45 +0000

Seth, you should definitely post more on this blog forum. Good stuff! Yes, I have seen people just go on and on and on with "this day in 1970 the top song was this?" Are you trying to make this a radio gig? I told that guy to ease up on the posts and he did for a while and now he is back to posting every 4 minutes or so… so I had to "unfriend" him! Oh well.

You are right about separate business and personal. No one really needs to here me talk about American Idol on my business Twitter account! Social media can be overdone… so a little bit at a time is fine… don't go crazy with it because "more" is not always a better connection with people.

Happy New Year Everyone! Let's make it a GREAT one!

–Jan