Then it came time to plan Foursquare Day Las Vegas with the Foodtrucks, I wanted her there and this would be the first conversation via phone that Marianne and I would have, it lasted about an hour.  It was like we where old friends, not like we where just talking for the first time on the phone.   I began telling her how Madeline my 17 year old could not find a job and the next thing I knew Marianne was hiring her. “Go get her a health card and she can work for me”-Marianne

Marianne had never met me in person, just tweeted with me, had no clue what my daughter looked like or anything.  Now my brat is her brat, they our (not that any of us are Hawaiian) Ohana, The Ohana Created by Social Media.  Marianne and Roxy have Dallice and Makenna my other daughters so spoiled with Shaved Ice.

Photo courtesy of  Ryan Shewchuck

Yeah sure, eventually I would of got around maybe to trying @SnOwONOShaveice, but with out Twitter or other social media outlets the Foodtruck Revolution that is spreading like wildfire would not of peaked my interest.  If Marianne would not of been paying attention to her brand #foodtrucks and joined in on the conversation with myself and Jolene from @Sloppijos my interest would not of turned towards her. Seriously, I live in the desert never been to Hawaiian, had no clue what shaved ice was..

Now time for me to go on my rampage!  Shaved Ice is not  and I repeat NOT a Snow cone, it takes time to shave the ice and Marianne is a perfectionist!  Your shaved ice is made to order and made with Love!  So what I am saying is it is so worth the wait.  If you are into instant gratification then I suggest a snow cone, but if you believe that “Good things come to those who wait” then you will value and appreciate your shaved ice the minute it starts it’s dance on your taste buds.

The best way I can describe it, is sticking your tongue out when it is snowing and catching snowflakes with your tongue. (like I would know what that feels like, living in the desert)

I hope you will share this Ohana’s story and get yourself some #ONOlicious shaved ice!

Almost forgot!  If you are one of those that doubt the “Power of Twitter”, ponder on this story for a while…

http://search.twitter.com/ is where you can get started in your advanced search.  Also http://search.twitter.com/operators and what are operators?  Operators are the words used to “Find Tweets.”

You would want to use “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How” when doing an advanced search.  Why? Because there will be people on twitter who are asking for help, if you where asking for help on Twitter what words would you use?

Then you will need to qualify your search with words that are qualifiers, for example “find, makes, or get” there are more.

So let’s put this together with our keyword, mine is WordPress:

Where find premium WordPress themes ?

Let’s say you are looking to answer questions in Twitter (build relationships, make conversation) and want to find tweets with out links in them, you would simply add -http -www to the search.

You can also search location by using:

nearby: LasVegas

The benefits of this is you can find people in your area to tweet and network with.

Let’s talk about the overall benefits of using http://search.twitter.com and http://search.twitter.com/advanced

Helping you reach goals and connect passively with local Tweople.

Connecting with everyone on Twitter in your geographic area can result in getting referrals.

Creating relationships online in your area and moving them offline.

Use your #Local Hashtag, you will find information like -events (tweetups), neighborhood, news, lists.

Create lists for your geographic area so you can actively connect and respond to locals, news media, and more. (Repetitive I know, but trying to make a point.) Because, of using Local Search on Twitter, I have connected with the likes of @CraveLasVegas,  @SnOwONOShaveIce, @Mitzula, ok you get the point I would be here a while if I listed all my great connections from Twitter.

Don’t forget to save your searches!

Here are some of the Lists I have created from my Twitter account @TheLVTweetup

http://twitter.com/#!/list/TheLVTweetUP/lasvegasfoodtrucks

http://twitter.com/#!/list/TheLVTweetUP/foursquaredayvegas

A list can be anything your passionate about. An event you attended so you can stay connected to attendees and network with them. Or simply family, friends, clients, thought leaders in your industry.

I have a post that I wrote on why you should create and use Twitter Lists you can check it out after we create a list together!  Go to your profile or home page and you will see a menu bar on the your profile page it’s under your picture.  On the home page it’s under the “What’s happening?”  box.  Select Lists

Now you are ready to name your list, give it a description and then choose to make it “Public” or Private”  the click on “Save List” when you’ve completed this screen.

Now that we’ve created your list let’s find people to add to it.  You can do this by searching for them by name.

When you do a search by name this is what it will look like:

Or you can just go to your follower list and add the people you want to the list.  Another ways is to do a search by hashtag.  An example hashtag would be #wordpress.  A hashtag is simply the number sign “#” in front of a word or words that enables you to follow a conversation on Twitter.  When you put it in the Twitter search it brings up everyone participating in the conversation.

Once you select those you want on the List you can click on it and see the tweets of those you have added to your list.

But you don’t have to stop there, submit your list to a “Twitter List Directory”  such as Listorious this will help get the word out about your new list on Twitter.

•    True Reach: Size of your engaged audience. Klout measures engagement through interaction, whether people add you to a list, etc.

•    Amplification Probability: Measures how likely your followers will act upon your tweets. Will they generate conversation, retweets, etc?

•    Network Influence: This is actual a measure of the influence of your engaged audience. In other words, do your followers have Klout too?

A new feature – Klout Scores are automatically processed every day.

To learn more about Klout’s measurements visit the Understanding the Influence Metric page as the above serves as a very simple summary.
To get started simply enter your Twitter username or someone else’s in the space below “View Your Klout Score”.

You do not have to log into Klout to get your Klout score, but you can sign up for more features if you wish.  When you sign up for an account you can connect to LinkedIn and Facebook.  Make sure you achieve 100% completion on your profile by:

1. Connecting to Twitter
2. Connecting to Facebook
3. Tweet your score
4. Give them your location

I am sure there will be a step 5 soon with LinkedIn being in beta.

So back to the “View Your Klout Score” to get started, click “Go” to get the results:

Next – View and Analyze Your Klout Score

Now you’ll see a page with your Klout Score summary and a list of your “Achievements” check out my @TheLVTweetup score:

From the picture above, you will see that your Klout score is formulated by looking at your True Reach, Amplification and your Network Influence.  The results page also includes your “Achievements” which shows:

• How many lists you are on
• Total reach for a single message
• How many times you’ve been retweeted
• Number of unique individuals who have retweeted you
• Number of unique users who have mentioned you
• Number of unique messages you’ve made that have been retweeted

Review Your Influence Matrix

Scroll down the page and you’ll see information about your Influence Matrix. The first item is an info graphic that shows your Klout Classification and it will look something like this:

Klout has determined I am a “Networker”. You can actually mouseover the graph and it will give a description of the other Classifications including:

Participating / Sharing

• Curator
• Broadcaster
• Syndicator
• Feeder

Creating – Broad

• Taste Maker
• Celebrity
• Thought Leader
• Pundit

Focused – Consistent

• Socializer
• Networker
• Activist
• Specialist

Listening – Casual

• Dabbler
• Conversationalist
• Observer
• Explorer

There is a different classification for each shaded box (as listed above) in the info graphic, for a total of 16 possible Classifications.

Who are the people you influence and those who influence you?  This is measured by retweets, @messages, follows and lists.  You can see an example of this below:

View Your Content Analysis

Up next, you’ll see a Topic Summary of your most influential topics. This is a calculation between topics you tweet about frequently and what topics have the most engagement. It might look something like this:

There is more, but I think this is enough to wet your imagination with the possibilities of measuring your online reach, go check out your Klout Score!

When answering questions using Listorious, your answers will be organized, in depth and have archive value. Listorious compares it to a magazine interview.

I have created a demo video on this new feature in Listorious you can check it out below.

Not to mention, that if you see a thought in one of my blog posts that you want to share in  the Twitterverse all you have to do is go to the Tweet Box and spread the Tweet Love.  Isn’t that what Social Media is all about?

Have you Implemented @Anywhere on your site yet?  I am practicing my Virtual Event Specialist skills I recently acquired from @VAClassroom so I created a screencast tutorial video for you!  Keep in mind I  said “practicing” still trying to master my new skills.

What you will find in the tutorial:

1. How to get your Twitter API
2. Find and Install the plugin “Twitter @Anywhere Plus”
3. Configuring the Plugin

Also, for the Techie Tweeps out there here is a link to Twitip.com’s blog post by Chris Webb @freewebapps  How to Drive Traffic From Twitter Using @Anywhere here you will find coding.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have fallen in Love with Cinchcast.com.  Recenlty, I took a podcasting course from VAClassroom I highly recommend it Andrea Kalli was our instructor and she always over delivers!  Hopefully they will release “Podcasting Marketing Success Strategies”  course again soon, so you can enjoy it yourself.  I get distracted so easily, the reason I brought the course up is because Andrea instructed us to create an account at Blog Talk Radio.  After signing up to Blog Talk Radio, I received an invitation to Cinchast.   I created a screen cast to show you why I love using their service and would love for you to join me there.  Cinchcast is powered by Blog Talk Radio.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a huge misconception! Assuming that your target audience is not out there in the Twitterverse tweeting, or Facebooking, becoming Fan’s of your competitor’s Fan Pages,  checking in on Foursquare leaving to do’s or tips, or leaving reviews on Yelp.

As a teenager everytime I told my Dad “I ASSumed” he would respond with “When you  assume, you make an ass out of yourself”  Yes this is a bit on the dramatic side even for me, just had to make sure you got my point.

This assumption that your clients are not participating in the social media channels  is a costly assumption.  Do you want to pay the cost?

Go to Twellow, Wefollow, Nearby Tweets, and Local Tweeps, then put in your location and see if your geographical location has an audience on twitter.   So where they there?

I don’t have time to Tweet, blog or Facebook – I am running a business!

Have you heard of  “Outsourcing”?  This is where a social media marketing specialist can be of value to you.   A social media marketing specialist can get your profiles in place, and customize them for you.  Set up a management system for you.  Coach and train you how to use this system.  But above all the most important thing a social media marketing specialist can do for you is help you “Define Your Social Media Marketing Strategy!”

I’ve tried it for a couple months and it doesn’t work – we haven’t seen an increase in customers through our doors since we started tweeting.

My dad also tried to teach me that “Patience is a Virtue”  I still have issues with this lesson, I’m all about instant gratification.  However, I had to get over my instant gratification when it came to participating in social media marketing and you will have to get over yours to.

You will need a long term brand engagement plan so you can connect with your community, share specials, and build your business over the long term.  After, all I am sure it’s not your plan to just try a month or two to  run a successful business.

“Patience is the secret sauce.” – Gary Vaynerchuck

I already advertise in the local paper and radio and that seems to be doing just fine for us.

How much are you spending on advertising in the local paper, purchasing radio ads, or ads in the local Yellow Pages?

Ok, let’s be honest here, do you use your phone book or call 411?  Yeah, I have this friend let me introduce you to him, his name is Google. I go to my friend Google and let my fingers do the walking….

Participating in social media marketing is “Cost Effective” the only expense you’ll incur is choosing to have a social media marketing specialist set your profiles up, train you to use the sites, set up a management system, and coach you by developing a strategic plan of action.

Any more objections?

When Twitter first started, users worried about how they would track their followers easily. You could not organize the people you where following into groups.

Now with Twitter Lists, you can categorize your followers in many ways. They can now be grouped into distinct categories.  Bonus! Lists allow you to include people you’re not following.

Why Use Twitter Lists?

Because, Twitter Lists are convenient!