You have less than 140 characters

Hey there,

Twitter...140 characters or less, right? Well technically. In their New user FAQ, they explain the rhyme and reason behind this.

But that's 140 characters total. For text. Text which might be a hashtag. Text which might be a link. Text which might be a link to a picture.

And of course any combination of those.

Fortunately, Twitter helps you out by counting how many characters you have left, right next to the "Buffer" & "Tweet" buttons, the former of which you might not have installed as a plug-in on your own browser, so don't worry if you don't see that one.

So, for example, with my work at Dance Place, one of my main goals is to always make room for #dcdance.

And now I have 132 characters left to type what I need to. Sometimes if there's a program that's multidisciplinary, I'll just use #dcarts instead.

Which is great because it gives me one more character than #dcdance. But more often than not, I'll actually try to use both, to tap into the discipline specific conversation, as well as the larger arts-wide one, in DC.

And there goes my count...down to 124 characters. Now, one of the neat things with Twitter is that at some point they started shortening links for you. Anytime you post a link in Twitter, it now only takes up 20 characters, which you don't necessarily see.

So yeah...it's a little more than 20 characters. And here's a piece at NBC attempting to explain why. Now you might be asking, what if I use a URL shortening site, like bit.ly or something. Then, it is no longer a URL shortening mechanism, but a lengthening one.

If anything, maybe it would be more appropriate to describe Twitter's link service as a standardizing one, as any link, however short or long, will take up 22-23 characters. Now this is actually related to uploading photos in Twitter.

As you can see, it even says that the image will appear as a link, a link of 23 characters. But I try to be an all-the-above kind of guy. If possible, I want the image, I want the link, I want the hashtags, but you try to put all of those in?

And all of a sudden you're left with just 78 characters of saying what you need to say. So, honestly, 2 out of 3 ain't too bad.

But I will almost ALWAYS include the hashtags as one of those elements. You might be wondering what happens if you go OVER 140 characters?

It's the highlight in red.

Anyway, that's that. Moral of the story, know what you're actual character limit is based on the elements I would recommend requiring in your tweets. In this case, at least one hashtag and a link. That leaves me with 110 characters.

In fact, anytime you begin to type out a tweet, go ahead and put those elements in first. This is actually tip #5 in post listing ten twitter tips.

And this way, you're spending more time from the get go working with the space you actually have. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, especially exchanges which are more like conversations. So if this doesn't necessarily apply to how you're using twitter at any given moment, I'd actually take that as a good sign.

Hope this helps, and let me know what you think in the comments,

JR

Foursquare's Twitter mention for check-ins

Hey there,

Just a quick tip for Foursquare managers.

A disclaimer, though: in general I am almost religiously against auto-syncing between social media platforms. This is one of those exceptions, and the main difference is because this is content shared that is user-driven. And when it comes to your audience, your customers, you generally want to accommodate their choices.

In this case, it has to do with what happens when they check in to your venue or event. Foursquare gives them the option to share it to any social networks they've connected to their account. If you go to the "Tools" panel on your organization's page, you'll notice theirs a box underneath "Connected to @[YourOrg]", and it says:

"Mention me when customer check-ins are shared to twitter"

You WANT to check this box. I really can't think of any reason not too, other than maybe you don't have a Twitter account for your organization yet. But I'm always open to new ideas, and if you can think of a reason you wouldn't want this checked off, please share it in the comments.

The win-win for this is that you will then get a notification on Twitter, in real time, when someone's checked in to your venue or event and decided to share it on Twitter.

Not only does no such notification exist, to my knowledge, on Foursquare, but then you can Retweet and/or Favorite their check-in tweet. This is especially great if they took a photo. And I would say as a matter of habit, you should definitely reply to their tweet, thanking them, welcoming them, and wishing they have a great time, or something to that effect.

More #DCdance! (at @danceplace for ClancyWorks Dance Company w/ 2 others) 4sq.com/ZpIMIY
— Grace Cunningham (@gracecunning) March 10, 2013

As you can see, not only did Grace check-in to the venue, but she checked-in to the event that evening, a feature I mention in the post on my event creating ritual.

Anyway, that's it. Make sure you have this feature enabled. It's just a win-win. Would love to hear your thoughts, but also any reasons you think an organization might have not to enable this. Leave any and all of these in the comments!!

JR

Ten Twitter Tips

Hey there,

Just wanted to share ten twitter tips. If you're familiar with Twitter, you'll probably recognize some common advice, as most of this is nothing new.

However, I wanted to share some that I thought were particularly crucial for artists and arts organizations who handled the basics, like setting up the account, and are taking baby steps forward. 

I actually listed them, but then looked for links to further elaborate on each.

Hope some of these help:

1. If you are going to start a Tweet with a mention, make sure to put a period first if you want everyone to see it. Otherwise only people who are following you and the other person will see the "conversation". More on this at artsbizblog.
2. Instagram photos are not previewed media in Twitter anymore. If you can, take the time to share it in Twitter, for those of your followers that aren't on and don't want to go to Instagram. More on this at CNN.
3. Throw in a non-review quote every now and then. Inspirational or funny, broad or specific to your discipline (like from a notable artist in your field), you get the idea. Here are some quotes from the Marketing Mamma.
4. The only person sync-ing to Facebook saves time for is you. Take the time to translate to Twitter, especially if you are mentioning artists or arts orgs on Twitter as well. Several more reasons at Leah Creates.
5. Put in hashtag(s) and link first (if any), so you know how many characters you have left to work with. More about hashtags at Hubspot.com.
6. Make sure you are monitoring Twitter during the weekend and/or any time you have events, not just during your office hours. Check out this post at Know Your Own Bone.
7. If you're not using Twitter as a platform for your community to talk with you, then they will talk about you, for better or for worse. Read more about ignoring tweets at Young Entrepreneur.
8. If you are tweeting for an organization, then make sure the organization is aware of pertinent communications, via the appropriate people (i.e. tweets from funders to the development team, local/regional arts agencies to the artistic and executive directors, partners to program managers, etc.). The social media manager needs to be integrated with and connected to everyone else at the organization. Check out this relevant post at social media today.
9. Sharing is caring. Don't be afraid of retweeting other arts happenings in your area, especially if your space is dark between exhibits or shows.  People like when you use your platforms to be a resource for your community, and not just your own personal cheerleader. More on that at this Radian6 blog.
10. Be yourself: an artist. Be creative and express yourself. :-)

Yeah, I figured that last one was self-explanatory.

Let me know what you think, if you have any questions, or other tips you'd add,

- JR

Twitter 101: Lists

Hey there,

This post is to help break down Twitter Lists. There's a great "How to Use Twitter Lists" page that provides the basics, so I thought I'd just provide one reason I encourage using lists, especially from the get go, as well.

They allow you to keep track of someone whom you might not necessarily want to follow for whatever reason. Maybe they tweet too much for you to want to see in your main news feed, maybe they don't follow many people back. But a list allows you to add both people you follow and those you don't.

Not only that, a list becomes a resource that other people can subscribe too as well, if you make it public (which you should).

All that being said, here are several examples of Twitter lists for artists and arts organizations.

You can use a list for the artists you work with:

Tweets from @ClassActsArts/artist-roster

You can use a list to recognize donors and other supporters:

Tweets from @ClassActsArts/supporters

You can use a list to highlight other local organizations doing similar work:

Tweets from @DancePlace/dc-dance-orgs

Or any other ideas that come to mind. Be creative, think about what's relevant to you and to your audience.

Just one note, you can only have up to 20 lists, so don't go list-crazy.

Have any you want to share? Make 'em and then tweet them to me, @HashtagtheArts.

Let me know what you think,

JR

Twitter 101: Follow Friday

Hey there,

This post is part of a series on basic things one can do on Twitter. So for those still trying to figure out Twitter, I thought I'd start by breaking down #FollowFriday (aka #FF). Yes it's a hashtag, but I'd have to say this is one of those cases where you are not joining a conversation.

The idea is that with this alliterative hashtag, you recommend Tweeps for others who search for #FF or #FollowFriday can follow. The problem is that Twitter becomes so inundated with #FF tweets, that there is no way sift through the noise. So, in my experience, this is more for your followers, and even more so for the people you mention. One of the first things I do when included in a #FF is to check out and maybe even follow the others included in it.

That being said, I thought I'd provide some examples of how I've used Follow Fridays.

You can use it to highlight Tweeps relevant to your field of work, whether you follow them or not. I also use this sometimes to try and get the attention of people I follow who aren't following me back yet, as they'll get a notice you mentioned them in a tweet. Anyway, in my case (for this blog), here are some social media & arts accounts that I believe share great content.

a social media & art #FF!! @kanter @kivilm @mashable @hesherman @youvecottmail @chadbauman. If you don't follow these tweeps, you should :-)
— Hashtag the Arts (@HashtagTheArts) January 5, 2013

It can be a way to connect with people and organizations which you do work with. At my day job, our artists do a lot of work with libraries, and that came up in conversation, so I decided to do a shout out to some of the area's public libraries:

It's a library #FollowFriday!! @dcpl @aacpl @fredcolibrary @hoco_library @mcpl_libraries @arlingtonvalib @fairfaxlibrary @loudounlibrary #FF
— Class Acts Arts (@ClassActsArts) January 5, 2013

Or it can be a simple way to thank new followers. I like this because sometimes before you realize it, a number of new people have followed your account and you haven't hit 'em back yet. Follow Friday's a great opportunity to do that.

A #FF thanks to new followers in 2013, part 1!! @katycat_forever @hollynobledance @weraadi @danceshare @thedmlrr @maurizioscarroz y'all rock
— Dance Place (@DancePlace) January 5, 2013

&

#FF thx pt 2!! @artsrallytogthr @fcclondon @billyandrews @wedanceww @cjameslane @whitehouse24x7 @adrienneb @scullydance @mwdcco @mochasolar
— Dance Place (@DancePlace) January 5, 2013

Just don't get crazy with it. I usually try not to have more than three tweets worth of people, including some context as to why I'm mentioning them. An exception is if I've participated in a Twitter chat or some kind of large event (like a festival or conference), I'll do a Follow Friday marathon, mentioning those who contributed to the chat or whom were live tweeting from the event.

So those are just some examples. Hope this helps, and definitely leave comments for any other thoughts or ideas or even examples of Follow Fridays you particularly liked,

JR

Great Twitter prompt from Diablo Ballet

Hey there,

Diablo Ballet had a great prompt on Twitter tonight, eliciting a social media storm of responses and conversation.

Give us your best "You know you're a dancer when..."Tells us what makes dancers special!
— DiabloBallet (@DiabloBallet) December 27, 2012

Of course I had to weigh in, especially since I majored in Dance at UMD College Park:

You know you're a dancer when you subconsciously start walking in rhythm anytime you hear music e.g. the gym, the mall, etc cc:@diabloballet
— JR Russ (@AWayofLife0) December 27, 2012

And I could certainly relate to almost all of the other responses to this. Like:

@diabloballet When it's not a big deal to change your clothes five times a day.
— Tiffany Kadani (@dancinbranflake) December 27, 2012

Or:

@diabloballet and when you hear your teacher say "One more time" that actually means 12 more times xD
— AngelStew (@TeamKRISTEN4U) December 27, 2012

And especially:

@diabloballet u know ur a dancer when u instinctively want to go home and stretch after seeing a great dance performance! @danceplace
— Nzinga (@NzingaJenkins) December 27, 2012

What I love about the last one is that I believe the Tweeter responded to the prompt because she was following Dance Place (where I am social media coordinator) and I Retweeted Diablo Ballet's original tweet through our account.

Now, in case you didn't know, I'm a bit of a fan of Diablo Ballet's social media presence. They're fun, engaging, conversational. And they've managed to engage me and others in my community, Like Nzinga, which is miles away from their own physical space.

On top of that, they are timely and actively responsive in engaging people on social media, which I would say is particularly crucial when you put a prompt like the one they did out there. And they're quite generous not just with retweeting, but favorite'ing.

Want to see other submissions to "You know you're a dancer when"? Definitely check out their Twitter account to see more responses from December 26.

Well-played, Diablo Ballet. Well-played.

- JR

Social Media logo guidelines

Hey there,

So I'm putting this out there because I've seen companies and organizations guilty of this: customized Social Media logos. Or even worse, just google'ing a platforms logo and using whatever they found instead of going straight to the source and understanding not just what to use, but how to use it. And there are plenty of sites, like 50 Free Social Media Icon Sets, which say little to nothing about how what they offer violates rules from the sites themselves.

Maybe some think that because of the public nature of social media, their logos are in the public domain and are up for use and reinterpretation as needed. But for the most part, every platform has very specific ways in which they do and don't want to be represented by their users.

That being said, I thought I'd just share some of 'em here. Text directly after links (in lists or a quote block) are straight from each platform's site.

Facebook Brand Permissions Center

• Guidelines - We permit the use of the “f” logo to refer, off of Facebook, to the following:
• Your Facebook Page
• Your Facebook Group
• An application you offer via Facebook Platform
• Your implementation of Facebook Connect
• Usage - Use of the “f” logo is subject to the general guidelines listed above in addition to the following terms:
• The context surrounding the use of the “f” logo should clearly indicate the action the audience is being prompted to initiate (e.g.“Like us on Facebook” or “Use this app on Facebook”).
• Don’t hyperlink the “f” logo to our Facebook log-in page.
• While you may scale the size to suit your needs, you may not modify the “f” logo in any other way (such as by changing the design or color). If you are unable to use the correct color due to technical limitations, you may revert to black and white.

Note that Facebook as a rule does not allow use of their actual, full logo, "Facebook" on their blue background. To use that, you need to work with your Facebook business contact.

Twitter Trademark and Content Display Policy - Usage Guidelines

• Do:
• Use our official, unmodified Twitter bird to represent our brand.
• Make sure the bird faces right.
• Allow for at least 150% buffer space around the bird.
• Don't:
• Use speech bubbles or words around the bird.
• Rotate or change the direction of the bird.
• Animate the bird.
• Duplicate the bird.
• Change the color of the bird.
• Use any other marks or logos to represent our brand.

For anyone still using the "T" logo? Yeah, you're not in compliance anymore. And the image above is just one of the four that are available on their site. Twitter also has further rules for use in advertising and marketing materials. And if you want promote your twitter account online? Then Twitter asks you to use one of their buttons, unless you're using it in a signature bar, and then they have this little gem specifically for that, a resized version of the Twitter bird.

Pinterest Goodies - Artwork

The below vector versions of our logo and badge are available for you to link to Pinterest. Please don't manipulate these graphics, use them to brand your own website, or imply false association with Pinterest.

Pinterest definitely has a less is more thing going on. That's really ALL they have to say (as of the time of this post) for using their two brand artwork, of which just one of the two images shown here.

YouTube - Branding Guidelines

You know, I'm going to let you figure this one out for yourself. I will say that that link is more for developers, so what you might want, if you're just looking for a button to promote your channel is Creator's Corner:

Here are some creative assets that will help you promote your content on and off YouTube. Go ahead and place your preferred button(s) on your website, users who click on them will be directed to your YouTube channel

So there you go. For the most part just Google the social media platform you want and "logo" or "branding" guidelines.

This is to warn you of any website creator or developer who tries to distract you with unique or custom social media buttons. They're offering something that is in direct violation of most social media platforms terms of service or policies, and should be a red flag, that you need to find someone else to work who will create a product that is not only functional and aesthetically pleasing, but in compliance and respectful of existing social media guidelines and policies.

Facebook even provides a nice sample of what is NOT acceptable.

I can't help but think that, especially as artists and arts organizations, abiding by the logo guidelines of social media platform should be something we all should know, understand, and respect. And, please, I encourage you, even if you're not in charge of such things, to check out and read the guidelines of any platform you or your organization uses, including the ones in this post as I've only posted part of each site's guidelines.

Finally, don't be scared. Social media policies in general are meant to be understand by the many, not the few. I am curious though, for anyone that realized or knew that they weren't using the logo according to the guidelines, will you do so now, or is it not really a big deal? And whether you're using a custom logo or not, do you feel customized logos are worth it, or do you think using the standard is more valuable, and why?

Let me know what you think,

-JR

Three Twitter tools to utilize

Hey there,

So here are three Twitter tools I recommend using for artists and arts organizations who strive to be mindful and intentional with engaging their community. Which is a perfect segue to the first tool I wanted to feature:

Commun.it

Their selling points:

• Focus on Your Top Influencers
• Actionable Insights
• Stress-Free Social Productivity

One example of how they assist with your Twitter interactions is they'll highlight Tweeps who've engaged you and whether you've replied to them or not. This was of great use Sunday morning as it made sure I replied to someone who was my first RT, from the day before. Here's the tweet in question:

First post, highlighting an event co-hosted by @theatrewashdc & @smcdc which helped to inspire the blog. hashtagthearts.blogspot.com/2012/09/look-w… #htarts
— Hashtag the Arts (@HashtagTheArts) September 22, 2012

The two main categories in Commun.it's dashboard to be particularly mindful of are Relationships & Followers. Relationships help you monitor what Commun.it deems high value members, which are further segmented into Influencers, Supporters, and Engaged Members:

• Influencers - "The top influencers of your community, as judged by followers/following ratio and your engagement history."
• Supporters - "Supporters help you ’spread the word’ by retweeting your statuses and sharing links to your content."
• Engaged Members - "These members engage with you more often than others. Engagement is measured across all activities, including mentions, retweets, dms and favorites."

In terms of followers, Communi.it makes recommendations on who to follow as well as who to unfollow, and also notifies you about new followers and unfollowers.

And for the most part, these other two tools will provide similar insight. So I'll bring to light some of the features I like. Which leads me to:

Crowdbooster

Their selling points:

• Targeted Recommendations
• At-a-glance insights about each message
• Follower and Fan Growth
• Deep audience insights
• Manage multiple accounts

My FAVORITE features with Crowdbooster are the first two mentioned. One of the targeted recommendations suggest times for you to tweet. And in case you see the times and wonder why:

"Scores are based on when your followers are most active and how your previous tweets have performed"

So, this isn't a blanket, generalized suggestion, like you might see in some pieces or articles about Tweeting best practices, this is customized based on you and your community.

My other favorite feature is the graph you see to the right, which answers the question "How are my tweets doing?" The x-axis is the number of retweets, and the y-axis is the number of impressions. If you're wondering how Crowdbooster defines impressions:

"Total possible number of times someone could have seen this tweet. In other words, the sum of your followers + the followers of your retweeters."

Pretty simple right? And remember that tweet I mentioned which Commun.it gave me a heads-up someone retweeted and I hadn't replied to yet? It's the one data point you can see in the middle. All the others are almost at the origin. But with the RT, 9017 people were reached, as opposed to the 24.5 that has been the average, so far.

And this leads me to the final tool I recommend using:

SocialBro

Their selling points:

• Manage your social contacts
• Analyze your audience
• Search and filter your community
• See when your followers are online

That last point. That is social media gold, in my opinion. Knowing when your followers are online as active users, particularly if there are certain super fans of your organization and/or influencers in the Twittersphere, can only be a good thing, right? SocialBro also has similar insights as the other two tools mentioned, tracking followers, best time(s) to tweet, but one thing I'd like to highlight about being able to see when active users you're connected to are online? SocialBro lets you know how many total followers you could potentially reach, via those active users.

All that being said, this is ultimately not about quantity, but quality. Even in Social Media, and I am not the first one to say it, content is king.

Social media puts the public back in public relations, as well as conceivably every other aspects of the artistic process, on the creative side, but also on the management and government side. I'm interning at a Dance organization, and had a wonderful meeting with the Development team about how social media can be a part of their process and strategy.

Because when you handle social media, you are a steward of relationships. And the more you invest in caring for those interactions with your community, the more your community will be invested in supporting you,

- JR