Posted by Brad
Today we’ve seen a lot of chatter on Twitter about vendors, and this morning I was chatting in GTalk with Lauren from Pace. She was telling me about her frustrations with vendor demos and calls, and there were a few gems from the conversation:
i avoid them so much.
Use the phrase “touch base” as much as possible. people eat that up
im not used to small talk and horrible business slang/jokes…. “jokes”
Ironically, Lauren’s last Twitter update was over 2 months ago, when she asked for recommendations on the best email outsourcing company. Guess she’s been too busy with calls to update.
And shortly after, a message from our good friend @MrRSmith:
So here’s what we want to do at BlueFuego. It’s time to make a game card for you to follow along during those conference calls and vendor pitches. We also want to know what we should never say to you if we ever chat on the phone. (Or, you know, “touch base offline”)
We call it… BlueFuego Bingo.
Leave a comment with your favorite vendor buzzwords, sayings, demo snafu’s, and all those other things you just wait for to be said or shown during a call/meeting. We’ll compile the best and put them into the playing piece, which is certain to make your time with all of us more fun.
Here’s what we’ve heard so far today:
“touch base”
“talk offline”
“sugar off”
“conversion”
“[Insert Big Name Client Here]”
“Demo FAIL”
“Easy to Navigate”
Rhetorical Question about Product
“Private Beta”
“Paradigm Shift”
“Next Steps”
Alright, add yours below in a comment. Together… we can make the vendor world a better place.
Twitter is a noisy place, this we know. And as more people join, as you follow and interact with more people, there is a greater chance that tweets will get lost in the shuffle and you will miss them.
Lucky for you, there are several tools available to make sure you never miss a mention, whether it’s personal or professional. We already know that timely responses are crucial for social media, so multiple notifications can only help you provide the best experience possible for those asking you questions.
1. www.twitter.com/replies
This is the first logical place to look on Twitter. However, it’s limited. @replies will only be shown here if the original tweet starts with @username.
For example, this would show in @replies: @bluefuego Thanks for the advice!
However, this would not show in @replies: Thanks for the advice @bluefuego!
Because of this, you need to utilize a variety of tools to make sure you’re seeing all mentions.
2. search.twitter.com
This is another place to look for mentions of your institution, especially from those who you are not following. Be sure to search every likely phrase such as initials, abbreviated names of your university, mascots, and more. You can grab the RSS feed after putting together your query and these results are delivered straight to your RSS reader.
3. TweetReplies.com
This service will email you anytime someone @replies you (You can also choose RSS). It checks every 10 minutes and I have found it to be fairly reliable. If you are getting multiple @’s in mass, it might miss one here or there. Which is why I suggest using…..
4. TweetDeck.com
TweetDeck is the must have Twitter application if you’re ready to get serious about Twitter conversations and brand/reputation monitoring. It provides the option of breaking those you follow into groups as well, which is a much needed feature as you follow more people. The Replies column in Tweetdeck will pull any @replies from anyone, regardless of where the @ is in the message. You can also set up Search Columns. For example, below I have a search column for: bradjward OR squaredpeg OR bluefuego OR ‘butler university’. This has allowed me to see all mentions across multiple twitter accounts in Tweetdeck. From there, I can login to whichever account I need to use to respond to the tweet.
These tools have helped me track mentions, and with 874 @replies of @bradjward in the past 14 days and another 92 @bluefuego mentions on Twitter, it’s important to stay on top and use multiple tools.
What tips and tricks do you have up your Twitter sleeve to keep track of conversations?
Hello and welcome to BlueFuego.com!
We’re glad that you have decided to stop by and see what BlueFuego is all about. Thanks again to so many of you who have called, emailed and twittered your well wishes to our new venture.
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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re excited for the opportunity to work with you and help you meet your goals. There’s no better time than now to re-evaluate your communication with your audience and see if you’re getting the maximum benefit out of your efforts.
