Twitter Tuesday: Ten more tweeps to follow

Hey there,

So here's the 2nd post in this series I started last week, Twitter Tuesday: Ten tweeps to follow.
And here are ten more, the next ten who were among the first to follow me back.

Now, the only thing is I can't embed those who've protected their tweets. Makes sense, right?

That being said, this list isn't comprehensive. But I appreciate and respect my friends who've made that choice regarding their personal privacy settings. In the meantime, here are the ones that I can share

11. Tracy Wertheimer - I am a Lighting Designer for theatre, dance, events, and anything else that gets thrown my way.
    Currently in New York, NY
    Tweets by @tlwLD
12. Cara Fleck - every day harpenings in 140 characters.
    Tweets by @CaraFleck
13. Buffyfest - We love Joss Whedon shows Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr Horrible and Dollhouse. News about Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, James Marsters, Eliza Dushku.
    NYC/LA - Buffyfest@aim.com
    Tweets by @buffyfest
14. Shukoor Ahmed -  An Entreprenuer, Politico, Philatelist, Avid Networker. Serves as the CEO of V-Empower, Inc and Founder of www.SendwithMe.com & www.Ridetheway.com
    Washington DC
    Tweets by @Shukoor
15. Mark Warner - Updates from the U.S. Senator from Virginia and Staff. Following/retweeting does not equal an endorsement.
    Virginia
    Tweets by @MarkWarner
16. Bil Browning - LGBT blogger and activist This is my personal account; if you're looking for the blog tweets follow @bilericoproject
    Washington, DC
    Tweets by @bilerico
17. Shawna Thomas - @NBCNews White House Producer (Links & retweets aren't endorsements. Opinions are my own. JFGI. TV isn't magic. Duh.)
    Washington, DC
    Tweets by @ShawnaNBCNews
18. The Bilerico Project - The official Bilerico Project twitter account
    United States
    Tweets by @bilericoproject
19. Sarah Anne - Living in Baltimore. @Dance_Exchange board member
    Baltimore, MD
    Tweets by @wrappedinsaran
20. Steve Love - the little one from Mars.
    Chicago, IL
    Tweets by @steeeveinlove

And that's it.

I wonder who the next ten are!!

JR

My Top Tweeps according to Klout

Hey there,

These are my top tweeps.

This'll be oversimplified, but according to two simple paramaters: Klout and Tweeps I know IRL, these are my top Twitter Friends which I've met and know in real life:

• Regina Holliday, I believe I met her at my first ever un-conference. She does wonderful work, as an artist, promoting patient rights within medicine. I recommend checking out her blog as well as following her on Twitter.
  Tweets by @ReginaHolliday
• Farra Trompeter, I met at a workshop at the Foundation Center here in DC. She's VP at Big Duck, "smart communications for nonprofits".
  Tweets by @farra
• Tom Goss, I actually met while sitting on a panel at the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. And since then, I can't seem to stop running into him, as his music stands at the intersection of LGBT equality and arts.
  Tweets by @tomgossmusic
• Shawna, I met when I was a frehshman at GWU, fall of '99, and now she's a frickin' White House Producer at NBC News. And she's still down-to-earth-enough to connect with people like me on social media (luv ya)!!
  Tweets by @ShawnaNBCNews

And that actually is a pretty great reflection of my own way of life, an intersection of the arts, sex & sexuality, news, politics...and stuff.

Yeah, out of all of the people I follow on Twitter, if you were to follow any, follow these five. Because they're doing it right...whatever "it" is. :-D

Also, if you use Chrome, here's the Klout plug-in.

That is all,

JR

Twitter Tuesday: Ten tweeps to follow

Hey there,

As i get closer to 2000 followers, I thought I'd start paying homage by highlighting ten tweeps a week, in order of those who followed me.

So here are the first 10, with their bios at the time of this posting, followed by their profile embedded into this blog:

1. John Dellaporta - Actor, TV reviewer for DC Theatre Scene , fan of short-lived quirky TV shows, Apple fanboy. All views are mine alone.
   Washington, DC
   Tweets by @JohnDellaporta
2. Liam Mulshine - Forged in the heart of a star. Sunburns easily.
   Los Angeles, CA
   Tweets by @iamliam
3. Oscar Rohena - I'm @oscar! dot com. Work @ #Hulu #STS135 #Gaymer
   Los Angeles, CA
   Tweets by @Oscar
4. Barack Obama - This account is run by Organizing for Action staff. Tweets from the President are signed -bo.
   Washington, DC
   Tweets by @BarackObama
5. NPR News - News. Arts & Life. Music. Everything and more from NPR.
   Washington, DC
   Tweets by @nprnews
6. Stephen - Environmental advocate from the DC area.
   Washington, DC
   Tweets by @greeningstephen
7. Nigel Sanders - Print Samurai, Ninja Illustrator, Visual Ronin, and Media Anthrpologist.
   El Aye, See Aye, All Day
   Tweets by @Nesloq
8. Aris Kyriakopoulos - Aspiring comm/PR pro. @smcdc digital team. Gaytheist. @GWalumni. Democrat. DC native+nomad. I'm told I sound exactly like my tweets. Opinions my own.
   Washington, DC
   Tweets by @DistrictOfAris
9. kkmayfield - I dance, write, think, and play.
   metro dc
   Tweets by @kkmayfield
10. Diana Wei Fang - Music & Arts Coordinator @ National Community Church | Learning how to love unconditionally
    Washington, DC
    Tweets by @DianaWeiFang
    
    
    So a big thanks to you guys and gals and organizations for joining me in this crazy social media adventure!!
    
    
    And looking forward to highlighting the next ten tweeps who followed me back when my account was still a wee little Twitter egg,
    
    
    JR

Getting to know my YouTube One Channel

Hey there,

Today I took advantage of YouTube's new One Channel layout and format. And it's pretty slick.

If you go to the page, it starts off with this:

You are more than the sum of your uploads. On your new channel, branding works across devices, you can reach out to non-subscribed viewers, and you can show off more of your content so fans will go deeper.

When you opt in to begin the process, YouTube walks you through the new features with the quintessential tour. It starts off with an explanation about how the new features has been optimized to make it easier for subscribers to engage with your content.

One way they do that is by adding sections.

Sections can be organized by uploads or likes, or even playlists or tags. They start you off with some examples from your own content.

Next, they give you a handy-dandy checklist, for setting up your new channel: setting your channel icon, adding channel art, describing your channel, adding web links, adding a section, and last but not least (and one I need to do) adding a channel trailer.

A channel trailer is a clip that will be shown exclusively to viewers who have NOT subscribed to your channel yet. Not only that, it will always autoplay.

Next up in terms of the walk-through is choosing your channel art. They mention that this will not only show on the usual suspects in terms of desktops and laptops, but mobile devices and TVs as well.

And I LOVE that they mention from the get go that "recommended channel art size is 2120 x 1192", instead of waiting until after you try loading it, or just not mentioning it at all.

 Finally, they give you a preview of how your channel art will appear across different devices.

Anyway, that's that. Just thought I'd give a quick walk-through for anyone else who might be curious, but not ready to make the transition yet.

One more thing I'll leave you with, is recommending that you check out YouTube's Channel Optimization section. Definitely a must-read.

Have you made the leap? What do you think? Would also love to see what you've done with your channel. Please leave a link to your own channel in the comments!!

JR

3 reasons to always mention on Twitter

Hey there,

So I understand why people don't always mention other people, entities, organizations etc. that appear in their tweets. It involves an extra bit of Twesearch if you're not already connected to them, to see if they are on Twitter and what their handle is. And for others, maybe it's just not even something that they're familiar with.

But for those ready to take the leap, that little bit of time and energy, to make sure you always mention anyone or anything you tweet about is definitely a great example of the Rule of Three at work in social media, in terms of what you put out, you get in return three-fold. So here it goes

When you mention someone:

1. They will be notified that they've been mentioned in a tweet (maybe even by email, depending on their notification settings), and will see yours when they go to their Interactions or Mentions page. This is particularly good if it's someone you actually have a personal or professional relationship with, as they are that more likely to engage with your content and/or even share it. And because of just how much content is shared at any given moment, and most people don't spend their lives on Twitter, mentioning someone is just the thing to help put your content above the noise and make sure at least they see your tweet, instead of hoping that they're following you and happen to be on Twitter at the same time and...well you get the picture.
2. Next, mentioning another Tweep creates a link in your Tweet...yeah I'm talking about code, which you normally don't really have to know or think about. But you should at least be aware of it here. This link is good because of SEO, as long as your links aren't spammy. Case in point, when I Google my handle AWayofLife0 (which I use almost consistently across platforms), making sure to hide my personal results, my Twitter pops up above my Blogspot, my YouTube, etc. Now, I'm not saying that mentions are the ONLY reason it shows up first, but it's definitely a large part of it.
3. Finally, when you mention someone, you give your followers a chance to become engaged with that person as well, for better or for worse. In social media, as with all things online, it becomes a matter of the path of least resistance. And I would wager that seeing the handle of someone is more likely to inspire a response, than if you just typed the name out, particularly because it is visually different with aforementioned hyperlink capabilities.

So there you go. All of this is just to back up another point I sincerely believe in, in terms of not auto-syncing social media platforms. While there are exceptions, I would say that Facebook and Twitter are not one of  them.

Check out this post of mine from last year, if you're interested. But because each platform has its own mechanics, while some people might think they're saving time if their Facbeook content automatically shows up on Twitter, you miss out on the benefits of actually using Twitter to the best of its capacity, with mentions being a huge part of that.

Not a social media sermon, just a twitter thought.

Let me know what you think in the comments,

JR

Personal branding and photos on social media

Hey there,

One thing I spend a lot of time overanalyzing is personal branding. Yes, I'm sure it's nothing out of the ordinary for most people with a serious social media affliction.

But I also think about this as I strive to become a thought leader in my fields, as well as continue to build my public identity as a professional, self-employed artist, which I'd like to think isn't too far off from my personal and private identity. In fact, I strive for them to be as synchronized as possible, if not one and the same.

So with my latest photo update, it's probably the first time in a while I've consciously chosen photos to consistently use on my three main social networks, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The one outlier is the theme option in customizing one's Twitter design, but that'll be a post for another day.

Just wanted to share what I ended up with.

First up, we've got my Facebook profile.

Next on deck, is my Twitter. Haha, no pun intended given the recent news with TweetDeck.

Finally, we've got my profile on Google+.

You might've noticed the group profile photo on Facebook versus the solo version on the other two. This is mainly because Facebook is exclusively where I'm friends with people I know in person, so it just made sense for me to keep 'em in the shot, as well as tag them, whereas the other two platforms are more public.

I know, this might be a bit of an artificial distinction for some, but I mentioned I overanalyze things, and it's just what makes sense to me. I will say, I love how the cover photo works and plays with the different layouts, particularly Facebook & Google+ versus Twitter.

At the end of the day, though, this is a choice. Some might find it more useful to really customize the photos used depending on each platform's layout and dimensions. And I'm sure it's something I myself will explore sometime, when I have time to.

In the meantime, would love to hear how others address this, whether you use the same images or differentiate it based on the platform. Or even if you just don't think about it that much.

And please, feel free to leave links to your own profiles in the comments, if you'd like to share your personal examples, whether your own photo use is consistent, customized, or somewhere in between,

JR