Greg Swan

Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

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Batman goes to San Francisco, Facebook and Twitter HQ

In From the Road on October 15, 2012 at 12:08 pm

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Punxsutawney Phil’s on Twitter, just in time for Groundhog Day

In digital reputation management, Me Being Stupid on January 28, 2010 at 11:40 pm

Do you follow @GroundhogPhil on Twitter yet?

Punxsutawney Phil on Twitter @groundhogphil

Last year around this time I realized there was a huge missed opportunity for promoting Groundhog Day in social media.

So I went ahead and set Phil up with a Twitter account. @PunxsutawneyPhil was one character longer than Twitter allows, so I went for @GroundhogPhil.

To be fair, at the end of last year’s Groundhog Day, I wrote, “If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.” But I never heard from anyone.

This year I’d forgotten about the account until I got a new follower e-mail notification indicating Laura Fitton (@pistachio) was following @GroundhogPhil.

This is hilarious for a couple reason: 1) no one had followed Phil for nearly a year; 2) at SXSW a couple years ago, my friend Nathan and I (virtually) stole Laura’s shoe, and she ended up slapping Nathan; 3) Laura is a Twitter expert and who knows what she thinks of character Twitter accounts.

So I busted out the password reset and started tweeting for Phil again this year. Here are some of my favs so far:

Hugo Chavez reportedly accusing US of testing weapon of mass de-sunshine in Punx, PA to mess with my prediction.6:48 PM Jan 22nd from UberTwitter

Mustache guy just stuck a hose in my burrow attached to his jeep’s exhaust pipe. I think the stress is getting to him.3:24 PM Jan 22nd from web

They say we’re young and we don’t know, We won’t find out until we grow… Babe…I got you babe.. #musicmonday
10:18 AM Jan 19th from web

Winter! I just love hats, coats, mittens AND sniffles! Let’s do this the rest of the year.
8:05 AM Jan 19th from UberTwitter

Moustache guy just dropped off a Snuggie and Mad Men on Blu-Ray. I aint coming out for months.
8:35 PM Jan 18th from UberTwitter

And…. still winter. In your face, people.
8:49 AM Jan 18th from UberTwitter

My prediction: Chuck Norris will get sick of winter and roundhouse kick the earth to tilt its axis and make it summer.
8:30 PM Jan 16th from UberTwitter

Saturday night, and I’m about to prognosticate up some pizza rolls.
4:59 PM Jan 16th from mobile web

A week ago, the tourism folks at VisitPA.com have moved Phil into the 21st century with a sweet text campaign:

Sign up to get a text of Punxsutawney Phil’s Febuary 2, 2010 Weather prognostication from Gobblers Knob via your moble device by texting “Groundhog” to 247365 between now and Groundhog Day.

They have a Facebook Page and @visitpa Twitter account, too. However, they’re both overtly tourism focused and don’t follow through on the social character personality promise of the text campaign.

So I’ve continued tweeting as Phil. Yesterday, on the same day as Apple’s iPad announcement, PETA suggested Phil be replaced by a robot.

So Phil had some fun with it:

@PETA The idea that a robot could predict weather better than a rodent living beneath the ground is simply foolish. #iPhil
about 10 hours ago from web

Moustache guy is pretty shook up about this PETA robot thing. I’m getting a burrow makeover, complete with HDTV and a Wii!
5:08 PM Jan 27th from UberTwitter

Instead of a robotic groundhog to replace me, how about PETA sends over naked Pam Anderson from those anti-fur ads?
9:49 AM Jan 27th from web

And it was a surprise to get an @-reply from @peta!

@GroundhogPhil How lovely 2 hear from u Phil. Hope u get that holiday u deserve! http://ow.ly/11r38
about 11 hours ago from HootSuite in reply to GroundhogPhil

There have actually been quite a few interesting people to strike up conversations with Phil this year. See some of the better ones here.


Okay, so I’m in year two of brandjacking Punxsutawney Phil. As I said last year, this is yet another example of why it’s critical companies, brands and individuals proactively stake out their online reputation.

Meanwhile, I’m not clever or entrepreneurial enough to keep this up. I’m hoping someone will respond to the note below and take it from here. Otherwise, who knows? Perhaps Phil will start speaking Spanish next year.

NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.


My 2009 Tweetcloud

In Social Media on November 28, 2009 at 10:49 pm

Get yours here.

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Do Fortune 100 Companies Need a Twittervention?

In digital reputation management, Marketing Tips, Social Media on November 19, 2009 at 3:11 pm

Earlier this week my company, Weber Shandwick, put out a fantastic white paper on the Fortune 100′s use of Twitter.

The findings are quite compelling:

  • 73 percent of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts.
  • 76 percent of those accounts did not post tweets very often
  • 53 percent of the accounts did not display personality, or a consistent tone/voice
  • 52 percent were not actively engaged
  • 50 percent of the Fortune 100 accounts had fewer than 500 followers
  • 15 percent were inactive; of those, 11 percent were merely placeholder accounts
  • 4 percent were abandoned after being used for a specific event.

Weber Shandwick prescribes five basic, but essential steps for Fortune 100 companies to start to create true engagement and market interaction on Twitter:

  1. Listen to conversations.
  2. Participate in conversations.
  3. Update frequently with valuable information.
  4. Reply to people who talk about issues that are important to your company.
  5. Retweet relevant conversations.

Full paper here:

Download  it here.

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Social Studies: Favre’s comeback breaks via Twitter

In Social Media, Social Studies on August 20, 2009 at 9:35 am

As posted on Social Studies on August 18:

Michael Jackson’s funeral notice may have generated a CNN Breaking News Alert today, but the big news for us Minnesotans captured four of the top 10 trending spots on Twitter:

Brett Favre, Farve, Vikings and WCCO.

But why was local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV trending right along with the news of Brett Favre signing with the Minnesota Vikings?

Because they broke the story — via Twitter.

Via David Brauer at MinnPost:

Reporter Mark Rosen, preparing for a Hawaiian vacation set to begin Wednesday, got a call around 8:30 a.m. from a team poohbah. Fifty minutes later, the tweet heard round the world — well, at least the sports world — went out via @wccobreaking:

“A high-level source with the Minnesota Vikings tells WCCO’s Mark Rosen that QB Brett Favre is expected to sign with the team Tuesday.”

The station’s willingness to sit on a story that would quadruple its web traffic — producing a spike only exceeded by the 35W bridge collapse — reflects oft-derided mainstream newsroom values.

While the concept of news breaking online is nothing new, it’s exciting — and indicative of the changing landscape — to watch legacy journalists embrace new media channels, such as Twitter, for their breaking news reports.

The content mainstream news institutions gather, confirm and report is just as valuable today as ever before, but the distribution model must change to keep pace with technology, generational habits and the ever-quickening pace of the news cycle.

For example, although I don’t often watch local television news, I do subscribe to all available local TV station Twitter feeds, frequent their Web sites and read reporter blogs. I learned of Favre’s new Vikings deal via Twitter, sent it to a friend via e-mail, who posted it to his Facebook page.

News is news, in spite of the delivery format.

Now bring on the Super Bowl tweets!

Leave your comments on the Social Studies blog.

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Social Studies: 5 New Social Media Things I’m Excited About

In Marketing Tips, Social Media, Social Studies on August 3, 2009 at 2:39 pm

My new post on Social Studies today…5 New Social Media Things I’m Excited About

1. Foursquare
It’s like Twitter, except not only do you care where your friends are AT THIS VERY MINUTE, you all earn points for going to those places. I signed up for Foursquare long ago, but just like Twitter, it takes a good base of friends actively using it be fun. Local businesses would be smart to set up Foursquare nights/tours for their early adopter patrons. Are you the mayor of anything yet?

2. Google Voice
I finally got my beta invitation and locked in my Google Voice number with a personalized XXX-XXX-GREG, which I’m very excited about. You can set it up to forward all calls to cell, home and work phones or filter some folks to one or the other. Online voicemail with transcripts is fun, and I was able to install an app on my smart phone to make calls without using minutes and send SMS without using my plan’s allotted texts. The set up was very intuitive, and I’m excited about the future of this technology and integration with the Google cloud suite.

3. Stuff in 3D
I’ve seen some microsites and business cards utilize Web cam to 3D technology, but last week I discovered Best Buy (client) using the advancement in human brainpower to put graphics on their ads that turn into 3D images when placed before your Web cam. The technology is here, and it’s time to experiment. Can you imagine a tiny Trent Reznor playing a 3D show on your laptop?

4. TweetYourSenator
President O’s PAC is still spending all of those tiny donations leftover from the election, and this time he’s made it simple to “Tweet Your Senator” about healthcare reform. As if our elected representatives’ aides didn’t already have their hands full sending form reply letters and deleting voicemails from constituents, now they have incoming tweets to ignore. But wait! There are a surprisingly large number of congressional members on Twitter, and I’m excited to see ways to harness the burgeoning interest in tweeting.

5. Twibbon
If you were an avid Twitter user in the summer of 2008, you’ll remember Ze Frank’s Color Wars, where users chose a team, tweaked their avatar to show their team spirit and participated in challenges just like summer camp. I was on the red team and remember agonizing over my avatar in Windows Paint trying to get it just right. These days people pimp their avatars for more genuine reasons (green avatars for Iran, Stellan, etc.). And thanks to Twibbon, it’s easier than ever to tweak your avatar with a cause or image overlay. Don’t see a cause that resonates with you? Make your own. Very cool.

–Greg Swan

Please leave comments over at Social Studies.

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I’m in Asia’s Electric New Paper today…

In In the News on May 17, 2009 at 11:48 pm

We must be fair game at this point. Yet another article…

Need a job? Turn to Twitter

In the US, Weber Shandwick advertised for a web developer through a tweet from its digital strategy manager Greg Swan.

The chosen candidate Mr Doug Hamlin, 23, got the job after replying with his details.

Read the whole thing here.

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I’m in UK’s Sky News today…

In In the News on May 13, 2009 at 9:33 pm

skynews_ident2002
Different media outlet.
Different story.
Different reporter.
Different country.

Yet the same story angle as recent coverage in the Pioneer Press and CNN Money about how my company hired my colleague Doug via a tweet from me.

From an article in Sky News today:

In the US, Weber Shandwick advertised for a web developer through a tweet from its digital strategy manager Greg Swan.

Doug Hamlin, 23, replied with his details and got the job.

However, this story gave us hyperlinks to our Twitter names, which I think makes the story more interesting and engaging for readers.

Looking forward to new UK followers and hope they’re all as cool as Danvers.

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Productivity vs. Facebook

In Social Media on April 5, 2009 at 7:18 am

Via SmartBrief:
Workers who Twitter or connect with friends on Facebook while on the job are about 9% more productive, research at the University of Melbourne suggests. Short breaks to browse let the mind rest so that when people get back to work, they can concentrate better, said Brent Coker, the study’s author. “Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity,” Coker says. “That’s not always the case.” Reuters (4/2)

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Social Studies: Is your lawmaker on Twitter?

In Social Media, Social Studies on March 4, 2009 at 2:49 pm

I have a new post up over at Social Studies: Is your lawmaker on Twitter?

Here’s the post, but please leave comments over at SS:

Back in July, members of the U.S. Congress fought for their right to Twitter with a Let Our Congress Tweet campaign. It’s success, thanks in large part to Texas Rep. John Culberson, helped modernize rules — letting representatives tweet from the House floor.

If you caught President Obama’s annual message last week, you may have noticed attendees typing on their smart phones. But they weren’t just replying to urgent e-mails pertaining to national security — a handful were tweeting the event:

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank wrote, “Some members called it a new age of transparency, a bold new frontier in democracy. But to view the hodgepodge of text messages sent from the House floor during the speech, it seemed as if Obama were presiding over a support group for adults with attention-deficit disorder.”

And here is Keith Olbermann’s take:

Harsh words, and I can understand the sentiment that everyone, particularly legislators, should pay attention when the president speaks. However, I do disagree (and not just because it was recently proven doodling while listening improves cognition).

Mobile social networking is growing fast, and I’m no longer shocked at its popularity and permeance.

At the SXSW Interactive conference last year, I was struck by the presence of an unseen digital backchannel wherever I went. Whether it was in a panel about metrics, Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote meltdown or a sponsor party, attendees were sneaking a glance at their Twitter stream to see what others were thinking, saying and doing.

In the year since, the trend has now grown to the point Congress members are offering their real-time insights, feedback and criticism on public policy. It’s a heck of a lot more convenient (and entertaining) than watching committee meetings on C-SPAN or skimming a monthly eNewsletter detailing what pork your local legislator earned you this quarter.

In fact, the trend has grown to the point I rarely attend an event that doesn’t have a fledgling digital backchannel. People tweet about snowstorms (#snowmageddon), American Idol (#americanidol) and political debates (#debate).

Twitter has given a voice to the masses, which is challenging the long accepted “I speak and you listen” model. I don’t consider multitasking adolescence. Instead, it’s an unavoidable communication complement, and one that should be embraced and leveraged rather than shunned.

Do you ever watch legislative committee meetings that drone on for hours on C-SPAN? Me neither.

But if you’ve ever read your representative’s quarterly pork newsletter and wish you had a feeling for their personality, challenges and passions, now you can thanks to social media tools like Twitter.

What worries me more than the Congress members who offered real-time insights, feedback and criticism during the president’s address are the representatives who didn’t share their feedback with constituents at all. Now there’s something to question.

Is your representative on Twitter? Find the full list here at TweetCongress.com.

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