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Twitter can also serve as a real time customer service barometer. When I'm getting bad service at a restaurant for example I can Tweet It. Institutions should take note of this...

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Michael--

Right; it's a fine line between participating in social media with the hope of increasing traffic, reputation or brand awareness (all of which are perfectly legitimate reasons to participate) and refusing to be human, open and curious while doing so. Indeed, we *should* have goals and strategies; we should also be real, human, approachable and selfless as we work to achieve them.

And yeah, what's up with Apple? The first year I get to go to MacWorld expo, this geek girl's dream, and Jobs bails?

Heidi

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Great post Heidi,

I think those social connections add up to a critical corporate asset that is often analyzed in terms of product and brand. That can lead to the wrong actions even if you have good strategic intentions.

Sort of like Apple's decision to withdraw from Macworld without an alternative that places the emphasis on its community.

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Mike--

Yeah, Twitter can be overwhelming at first. I always recommend listening first. Then maybe follow @mrTweet for suggestions as to who might be good to follow.

And you know, just listening is always fine. No sense in clogging up the airwaves with what you had for lunch, right?

(BTW, I had cereal and coffee for breakfast.)

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Pauline--

Thanks; I'll do that.

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Heidi -

I encourage you to list this experience on TripAdvisor.com. I have listed both good and bad experiences with hotels from the large conferences my company used to plan to small boutique hotels I have gone to on vacation. Link the post back to your blog. Thanks for the heads up. I have found Radisson to be either stellar or awful. I would also suggest calling or emailing the VP of Customer Care. Corporate customer care for these major hotel chains are very sensitive to bad reviews.

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That's amazing! Not only the original experience, but the hotel staff's response to it. I mean, I suppose I could understand the guy being startled, but the hotel staff's response sounds quite a bit like blame--in what way was that your fault?

Indeed, the staff rep should have kept opinions to himself and simply been there to serve you, the customer who was in front of him.

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Yikes! I reckon you won't go there again!

My worst: Ritz Carlton in Detroit. Got in around 1 am after lengthy presentation rehearsal, quite tired.

Swiped my card, walked into DARK room. Couldn't find light. Dropped suitcase, flung myself onto bed.

There was a man in it. Deep baritone voice screamed at me.

"Who are you?"

I about hit the ceiling I was so scared. I hightailed it down to the lobby, very upset.

When I got to the lobby, adrenaline jumping out of every pore, I almost burst into tears as I shakily told the guy behind the desk what had happened.

He sneered at me.

"What happened to you was NOTHING," he rebuked. "If you think you were scared, think about the poor guy you jumped into bed with. I just got off the phone with him, and he's RIGHTFULLY upset at what happened to him."

Of course, he said this loudly.

I never went back. Never will.

There are other hotels that treat guests with dignity. I'll go there, instead.

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This is perfect for my mother who is just starting out. I need quick lists and articles about how to use Twitter. She's so overwhelmed online. I thought Twitter would be a great and easy way for her to explore.

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Heidi, the quality wasn't bad for a field interview. I imported it into Audacity and did some noise removal and compression and it sounded even better, so it is workable. The worst part was the music which could not be removed, so that would be something to avoid if possible.

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Yeah, I'm not sure I'd do an entire Podcast this way unless the quality were better--I'll give it a try on the Best setting and see how that sounds.

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I thought it sounded OK. Definitely not studio quality, but could work great for an impromptu interview or thought of the day.

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That should say "personal note."

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Heidi, I think the quality of this recording is fine for a personal not to yourself, but not for podcasting. I have tried EccoNote on the iPhone, which is limited to short files, but sounds better.

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That should say "personal note."

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Heidi, I think the quality of this recording is fine for a personal not to yourself, but not for podcasting. I have tried EccoNote on the iPhone, which is limited to short files, but sounds better.

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Pauline--

Good points for safety, yes. And while I haven't unfollowed anyone for a differing viewpoint, I have unfollowed for a poorly or unkindly expressed differing viewpoint.

Heidi

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Great Post. This is very true. I think there are a lot of people that struggle with what to do with the first couple people that follow you out of the blue. This is an excellent guide. I would also add if you have people following you that you have no clue about be prudent about what you paste for your safety and your families. Don't tell people you are going to be gone on a week long vacation with the house empty. I have unfollowed people because I have lost respect for them and their information became less reliable due to their view point. However, this was valuable to know and I was able to get a clearer picture because of their tweets.

Thanks for putting this out there!
pbrannigan

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DDog--

That's interesting. I've yet to unfollow anyone, even though I probably should. The tweets have to be pretty lame, offensive and often for me to unfollow.

Heidi

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Luigi--

I can't believe I wasn't already following you! Adding now.

And yes, podcasts are another great way to find cool people to follow. I think that when we introduce ourselves, we should give:

Name
blog, podcast
Twitter
Facebook

And then SecondLife name, if you do that sort of thing. ;-)

Heidi

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Leslie--

Interesting. So what do you do with the list of people that aren't providing value? (Wondering if there is a Twitter Losers Club out there... )

Heidi

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I don't follow bots unless they are actually interesting and/or useful.

I usually try to figure out why the person might have followed me, as my stream is protected. If we have followers in common and their stream looks interesting, I usually follow back, because then I can take part in more conversations among the common connections. If we don't have followers in common, their stream has to be more interesting.

I usually unfollow someone only if we haven't had any DM or @ conversations and I don't get laughs or food for thought or links I find interesting from their stream. I follow over 200 people at this point, most of whom I sought out, and I don't think I can keep track of many more. So if we're not actually connecting on some level, I unfollow.

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If someone follows me, I'll check them out and if I feel they will be useful or share useful information, I'll follow them. You can tell very quicy by looking at their last 10 posts whether they have any relevance.

A key thing for Twitter is that I don't see it as essential and i don't lose any sleep if I don't look. On the other hand I have made some great connections and by also following key news media, I learn about important events the instant they hit the newsdesk.

I use Twitbin on my desktop at home and in the office and glance at it from time to time.

Often I find new people that I should follow through podcasts, for example yesterday I was listening t a podcast by Gerd Leonhard about Music 2.0 and other things, I found his Twitter at http://twitter.com/gleonhard and am vey pleased that I found him. He is an expert on New Media and a fellow futurist. Now you know about him as well and we will probably both learn from him.

Btw my Twitter is http://twitter.com/BluesBro

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I follow a lot of the things you listed. I do want to follow and engage with people who have something relevant or interesting to say, give me something to think about. I like it when people post links for interesting stories. I do use Qwitter, more to keep track of people who are just interested in building a big list of followers and not in providing real value in a mutual community.

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Katie--

Well, we're all just learning. Some of us are just more geeky about it. :-)

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