The SEOmoz community has always been a fundamental driving force behind this company. All of you (Moz Community) provide the motivation to keep us (SEOmoz employees) working and you issue the guidance to keep us on the right track. When asked why I like my job so much, my first reply is always that I get to work with great people. This includes my co-workers but also extends to those of you that I have had the pleasure to meet online and in person. That said, I would like to get all of your feedback on how SEOmoz can serve you better.
We recently gained control to the twitter usename seomoz which had been registered by a hijacker. Rand (@randfish), and I (@dannydover) each tried unsuccessfully to claim the username. Eventually, it was Jane (@coplandmj) with the help of @djpaisley that were able to claim what was rightfully ours.
Now that we have the username, how can we use it to best serve all of you? Reply in the comments or hit us up @seomoz on twitter.
Most people find out about big announcements and updates to SEOmoz through the blog, so maybe just use twitter to publish funny, random stuff about what's happening at SEOmoz? Twitter seems more condusive to that kind of thing anyway.
Seconded. I get feed updates already so funny random stuff plus insights gets my vote.
Agreed - something with a bit more personal style would be nice, sort of an inside scoop on what's going on at the Mozplex: projects people are working on, new employees, unwritten blog post ideas, what Rand had for lunch, etc. Announcements are fine, but if it's only a notice of new blog postings, it's not doing anything my RSS feed can't do.
I vote that you make Rebecca do it so that she's finally forced to spend time on Twitter. Thumb this comment up if you agree ;)
I think Rebecca has permanently rejected Twitter, so it would probably be Jane, Danny & I running the Tweet account. I do like the idea of keeping it more personal and fun, with a bit of business stuff mixed in, like:
Does that kind of stuff sound right?
You've once-and-for-all crushed my dream of getting Rebecca to join us and ruined my Friday fun :(
Seriously, I think the idea of having a few different people involved is great - it would give the profile a Moz-flavored personality without being dominated by one person. Since some of you are already on Twitter individually, it should be more than just your personal account, and different perspectives on the behind-the-scenes aspect would be a good read.
Besides, half the SEO community spent our day on Twitter changing our icon colors and arguing about it. The bar is pretty low :)
The short answer is: yes, that sounds about right (IMO).
Those ideas are great! You would really give the Seomoz brand personality. You can take pictures of your Piecora lunch through Brightkite and when I see it, I might come join you.
Not to me except for the two messages about SEOmoz.
Generally I don't care to read about what people eat and what people wear. I usually follow twitters which don't post tons of messages and whose messages bring some type of value to the reader.
And that would be the man famous for his yellow daps?
My thoughts exactly. Plus I don't care what people say, bowling shoes are perfectly acceptable for the office. They are just jealous.
Yeah, because bowling shoes are normally, like, at least 3 colours - Rand's just gutted he only went for one..
I agree. It's nice to get to know the people behind the brand. But it's good to be notified when something new comes along, an extra special posting, etc...a good mix of fun & personality, with great seo info. My favorite thing about working in this field (as short a time as its been) has definitely been the great people I've met (mostly on twitter, but a few in person). I think Kate says it somwhere below, but the people make the work fun. So bringing a bit of that into the twitter would be fabulous.
My suggestions:
- hold a contest now and again
- allow a free SEO question here and there
- interact with followers
- suggest stuff to read
- amuse us with funny anecdotes
Ummmm, guess that's it for now.
Congrats to @coplandmj and @djpaisley for the victory!
Agreed.. mix it up by having a little bit of everything
Good ideas here, dittos.
Agree with using it for new posts (for those of us on RSS-feed overload) and new YOUmoz posts, especially.
Would especially like tips and updates on using tools. Maybe tips about PRO tools will create more PRO members and show us value of renewing.
Being involved in conversation on Twitter, especially for SEOmoz, will be time-consuming, yet hopefully it will build brand, following and be a win/win for all.
Yes ... I also agree with the suggestions that Crash made up there.
Guess I better go get a Twitter account now. I too have been dreading another social application to waste my time on. Good thing I work in the marketing department and this is all in the name of research!
I can't do my job without twitter ... seriously, the relationships made are more than worth it.
Amen sister ;)
I'm kind of hoping you follow exactly 2000 people and pump work at home schemes, but that's just what I'm into.
i know i'm no pro member, but i'd really like to see it not be used to tweet new blog updates (hello, rss!). so, what then?
ideas in random orders (may or may not contain a BAC > .08)
wow, short list. meh, i'm sure someone will be along with better ideas.
I finally started doing facebook, but I don't think I'll tweet--even though I did get my twitter account because of Rand's recommendation so no one else would get it.
I like the suggestions from Crash and vingold.
If I start twittering, it will be your fault, @seomoz.
We love taking the blame for Twitterdiction :-)
And I think that Danny & I should take the blame for spreading the addiction to the Moz (Danny for getting Rand on board, me for persuading Jane that she didn't have enough ways of communicating with people already...
;)
I was thinking more along the lines of showing more of what life is like at the mozplex on a day to day basis (it involves explosions and fighting off angry mermen). Or would people prefer a more SEO related tone?
Why not do both?
I get enough through the feed reader ... I want to hear a little SEO, a lot SEOmoz :)
As a twitter junkie, I also see many benefits for the commercial use, as well as brand building use of the micro blogging format.
Although I would love to see more "personalised" content as others above are asking, I think you may need to service the less vocal SEO community. A large chunk of them come to seomoz for the useful SEO information that you guys provide.
If we were to look at the commercial format, may I suggest creating series of useful tips tweet for pro followers - as well as first look at the juicy info that you may be publishing, investigating etc?
A tweet on reccomended blog post of the day may help too - although a large portion of us do read the usual blogs, sphinn SEJ, SEW etc, I doubt a large majority do. Engaging that majority will be a challenge, but in the long run if successful, would add to the SEOmoz brand...
Twitter, for me, is not about getting updates when someone posts on their blog. It's about being part of the conversation. So if the SEOmoz Twitter account becomes just a source of updates on blog posts and SEOmoz events, I doubt I'll continue to follow it.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to follow a brand on Twitter. I want to follow people.
The key to success for a branded Twitter ID is engagement. Rather than using Twitter as another channel for pushing out a message, successful companies use the community to have conversations with their fans, improve customer satisfaction and ultimately generate new business based on the positive perception created. There are many case studies written about companies on Twitter. I have catalogued many of those on my blog, Twittermaven, https://twittermaven.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-on-brands-that-get-it.html
Congrats on winning your brands username back :)
Well, personally, I would like to see the blog updates, since I follow Twitter much better than my rss. I also follow most of you already on Twitter.
I do like the ideas that have been suggested above, like contests and homework.
I look forward to see how you'll deal with having the staffs' personal accounts and than how you'll use the branded, company profile.
Tweet you later
ps. Love the comic :)
In addition to all of the above (and with only part of my tongue in my cheek):
Tweet when the site is down.
Tweet when the site is back up.
(although we've had a long run of uptime lately. I guess that's one of the benefits of no longer having the comment tracker available.)
How about using Twitter to help create the Thursday Roundup? You could post links as you found them and members could also share their links. Then, come Thursday, it would just be a matter of rounding up links from Twitter.
I'd suggest that you use the @seomoz account simply to take Moz onto Twitter. Many of you have personal accounts on Twitter and you may be happy to use them to converse with members.
But there may be some of you who would rather keep Twitter more private in nature: I'd suggest that you could use this account to act as a mouthpiece for all things Moz, respond to comments about the Moz on Twitter, etc.. In other words, do all the things that people like Kanye aren't (sorry for the terrible plug, but it seemed apt...
We want @Squishee!!! ;)
Post breaking news in the SEO world.
I agree that the SEOmoz blog is the place to read up on the latest industry news according to SEOmoz, so using Twitter to further promote it directly probably isn't best for anyone.
That said, I think Twitter should be a bit more about casual and laidback snippets of conversation between the Moz and it's followers...I like the occasional contest and "suggested reading..." options from Crash, as well.
Then again, Jon's suggestion to follow exactly 2000 and begin whoring yourselves out to promote the latest home-based businesses might amuse the crap out of some of your biggest fans, too! ;) Good one, Jon...
tweet when u post new stuph?
Make it a personality (person) itself and tweet from it. We did this with @coloneltribune and we have people asking him out to lunch, rock concerts, etc.
Something similiar with @seomoz would be cool. Think up a good personality, a cool avatar and run with it.
Sorry I'm 4 days late to the question.
Brent
So now finally I can't ignore twitter anymore.
And Danny, by the way loved the cartoon at the end of the post.
Nice one. I have recently become a twitter junkie. :)
I think most seomozers will still follow Rand in Tweeter and won't change that for following a "generic" seomoz tweet account. IMO rand will still remain as CTWO (chief tweet officer) :-D
I still haven't gotten into Twitter that much (hello 29 updates) but maybe I'll be a bit more into it after meeting up with the peeps next week.
As for the moz tweets, I say do company/group type posts. Your blog is great at conveying individual voices, but under the brand it's going to be harder to pull.
I think you could incorporate all suggestions previously listed...personal, fun, insider tweets along with corporate push messages.
As for me, I'll just ask Q&A in hopes that they get answered via twitter. :)
Fantastic suggestions in this comment thread; we'll certainly take them all into account.
One other great tool we now have: in addition to search.twitter.com (formerly Summize), we have our @seomoz Replies tab. We've already seen some great feedback from people through their replies (and I promise we'll reply to them once I get my act togeter after my holiday!)
Am I the only one who doesn't tweet?
:) no, but it is getting more and more common. Join us!
How about updates to SMO magazine? :)
I expect a good one after SES...coughJANEcough...
I add my vote against blog alerts - RSS is great for that and I agree with Crash's ideas. But what about google? Does google indexing twitter matter?
I recently started twittering for two of my websites when I saw one of our competitors twitter show up on google. So I started twittering just for google without concern as to who, if anyone, was following me. Then the swimming twitter started being followed by the local press so then I switched gears and twittered live results for them. They published a story today on Junior Nationals - pretty good considering all the Olympic coverage. So it turned out different than I thought but the results were good. Now I will go back for the emphasis on twitter posts that involve keywords when events happen that I can leverage.
Is google indexing twitter accounts a factor to consider? Is using twitter to get indexed by google OK? I am not making things up - just presenting then with keywords as often as possible.