What The @NFL Can Teach You About Virtual Events

April 20, 2012

Introduction

News flash: The National Football League (NFL) is an event planning organization. And they happen to be among the best in the universe. The NFL runs a year-long series of events, from mini-events, to large scale events to mega events (e.g. The Super Bowl).

Recently, the release of the NFL’s 2012 schedule coincided with 3-hour, prime time specials on both ESPN and NFL Network. Wow. Unlike any other major sport, the NFL is top of mind (in their fans’ minds) 365 days a year, 24×7.

While I’m not suggesting that your virtual event become a year-round, round-the-clock sort of thing, I do think the NFL can teach you some things. Instead of your annual virtual event being a “one and done” experience, steal some ideas from the NFL to extend your event’s livelihood. Let’s take a further look.

The Ecosystem

While the NFL is the arbiter of its brand, it relies on an ecosystem of partners to extend and reinforce that brand. The ecosystem includes:

  1. Individual teams
  2. Broadcast partners
  3. The Press
  4. Related content providers
  5. Merchandise retailers

The point here is that the NFL can’t do it alone. Where would it be without CBS, FOX and ESPN? Similarly, consider your virtual event. Your ecosystem includes:

  1. Exhibitors and sponsors
  2. Speakers and presenters
  3. Content providers
  4. Service providers

Be sure to fully leverage your own ecosystem in areas like monetization, audience generation, buzz building and media coverage.

Owned Media

The NFL, over the past several years, concluded that it needed to beef up its owned media, to complement its ecosystem. Have you visited NFL.com recently? It has as much original content as its ecosystem partners (e.g. ESPN.com, SI.com, SportingNews.com, etc.), written by a growing team of writers.

And of course, there’s NFL Network, which launched in 2003 and is carried on cable and satellite TV systems. With its talented team of analysts, I often find myself tuning in to NFL Network before and after games, when I’d formerly watch ESPN.

As a virtual event planner, you need to consider owned media, too. This could take the form of an event web site, a related blog and social media channels. If you run an annual, mid/large scale virtual event, realize that you’re now in the publishing business. Devise an Editorial calendar and start banging out content. Start by linking to and commenting on existing articles, then consider developing content of your own.

Generate Online Chatter

Is there any other sports league where the release of the season schedule is an event in and of itself? That’s the genius of the NFL. For an organization where most of the action takes place on the field, the NFL finds ways to create action (and generate related commentary and discussion) off the field.

The release of the 2012 schedule is an example of using its ecosystem (e.g. ESPN) and its owned media (e.g. NFL Network) to create an event (“2012 Schedule Prime Time Special!”). The prime time specials were the “main event” and it generated a wealth of discussion and commentary online, in the form of social networks, blogs and web coverage.

Think of similar ways to create news about your event that results in online chatter.

Select and Announce Speakers

Speaking of which, how about generating buzz around the selection of speakers for your virtual event? Madden NFL (from EA Sports), a key partner in the NFL’s ecosystem, runs an online tournament to select the player to appear on the game’s cover.

This not only puts the power in the hands of its fans, but generates buzz and chatter about the upcoming season’s game. Why not do the same for your virtual event? Allow your attendees to vote for the speakers they’d like to see and build some buzz at the same time. You could generate additional registrations, while creating a loyal attendee base at the same time (which will help your attendance rate).

Create an Off-Season Schedule

If your virtual event makes up your season, consider how you engage with your audience during the remaining 11+ months of the year. The NFL loves to generate online chatter, but it also knows that it needs to connect directly with fans via off-season events. Consider the following “mini events,” which occur after The Super Bowl:

  1. NFL Combine
  2. NFL Draft
  3. Training Camp
  4. Pre-season Games

Fans are invited to attend each of these events and all build up quite nicely to opening day. Like I said, with the NFL, it’s a year-round schedule that doesn’t have an end. Consider ways in which your virtual event can be complemented with off-season events. Speaking of which..

Re-broadcast (i.e. re-purpose) key content

Ever notice how NFL Network re-broadcasts a selected game from the prior week’s action? They don’t re-broadcast the entire game, mind you. They edit out the “between play” action, where players stand up, walk back to the huddle, etc. If you missed the game, this makes it quite convenient to view the action you missed.

In virtual events, you can provide access to all sessions for on-demand viewing, but why not take it a step further? Create abridged versions of the sessions (e.g. the top 10 slides from the presentation), then schedule a mini event during which the presenters appear (online) to engage with the audience.

Further Monetize Your Audience

The NFL has numerous ways to monetize its audience, in the form of ticket sales, merchandise sales and corporate sponsorships. There’s also TV commercials, the content of which has nothing to do with football.

According to Wikipedia, NBC generated $75MM in advertising sales for the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast (2012). The NFL benefited in the form of broadcast rights paid by NBC. Consider ways in which you can leverage your ecosystem to generate additional revenue from your audience. Hint: it could be in the form of unrelated content!

Conclusion: This takes work.

I can hear you already: you’ll tell me that your organization has nowhere near the resources to pull any of this off. And I’ll agree, somewhat. All of this takes work, which involves resources. You must first analyze how much you’re willing to invest (dollars, head count, etc.) and whether the anticipated ROI is there.

The NFL decided it was. It now employs writers, analysts, broadcast engineers (and more) – but, it continues to wisely tap into its ecosystem to widen its reach. Leverage your ecosystem to make this year’s Super Bowl your best ever.

Note: I invite you to connect with me on .

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

How I Curate (and Share) Content on Twitter

April 13, 2012

Book store / library image.

Introduction

I once had a pile of old books that I no longer wanted. I brought them into a bookstore that buys and sells used books. After placing my pile of books on the counter, the owner proceeded to examine each one. He carefully examined the cover, opened the book to read the chapter of contents, and then skimmed quickly through a few pages.

I was expecting him to accept each of my books, but he only took a third of them. When I asked him about his evaluation process, he told me that it’s driven by limited shelf space, along with his understanding of what his customers want.

To become a regarded sharer of content on Twitter, you need to act like the used book shop owner. His shelf space has a fixed amount of space, in the same way that your Twitter followers have a fixed amount of attention. The store owner can’t sell every used book he comes across and you can’t (well, shouldn’t) share every single link you find.

So speaking of sharing, I thought I’d share the process I use for curating and sharing content on Twitter.

Curation

The Process

Like many of you, I have a daily “surfing routine,” in which I visit a number of “go to” sites each morning. For the national (and global) scene, my favorite site is NYTimes.com, for which I gladly pay to gain access. For the local tech scene here in the Bay Area, I visit SiliconValley.com, a web site of the San Jose Mercury News.

In addition to these go-to sites, I use the somewhat old fashioned method of maintaining 40+ RSS feeds, which I read via Google Reader.

I then behave like the used book store owner. To gain credibility and respect, I like to share links (content) that my followers (and even folks who are not following me) find useful. If I blindly tweet out a large volume of tweets and my followers don’t find them useful, then I’m sure to lose followers.

Content Review

While I’ve committed the sin of tweeting an article solely based on a captivating headline, I prefer to read the article entirely – or, at minimum, to skim the article to get a sense for it. Recall that the book store owner did the same thing.

When you read the article, it helps you understand what you’re sharing. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to share an article in which the body didn’t match the title at all? Yes, that could annoy followers who clicked on the link.

Another benefit to reading the article? Including a fact or quote from the article in your tweet. I like to include my own thought(s) in my tweets, rather than just tweeting the article title and link. In short, I believe that “curate and comment” is better than just “curate.”

Selection Criteria

For something to be shareable, I look for the following:

Timely: I prefer to share content that’s been published in the past 0-2 weeks. If I find a really useful article that’s 1+ year old, I mention that in my tweet (e.g. “From 2010, but still quite relevant”). Timely also refers to “what’s hot” (a trending topic, if you will). Timely topics that I’ve shared of late include Pinterest, Instagram, mobile apps and Google+.

Interesting: If everyone is writing about Pinterest (and they are), I prefer to share bloggers or journalists who provide a unique spin on the latest trend. Early on during the trend, however, an “introduction to” or a “how to get started” article is, in fact, interesting.

Useful: Related to the introductory articles that I mention above, I like to share content that helps my followers learn something new or do their job better. I often use the rule that if I find it useful, that you may as well.

Sharing

Tweet Button

I estimate that 60-70% of my tweets come from the Tweet button. Almost every site that I frequent (including most blogs) has social sharing buttons. So I share as I read. It’s efficient, because I share as I surf – and, because the Tweet button makes it so easy.

Attribute Authors

If the Tweet button doesn’t include the author’s Twitter handle, I like to search for the authors, to see if they have Twitter accounts. If they do, I like to include their handles in the tweet. This is useful for your followers (i.e. they can follow the author, if they like) and, it lets the authors know that you’ve tweeted their article.

Buffer

I’ll also use a neat tool called Buffer to schedule certain tweets be sent out at particular times. There can be times where sharing becomes too frequent. Buffer allows me to “save up” a bunch of tweets and send them at a later time or date.

You can even schedule tweets with Buffer directly from Google Reader, which I find quite useful.

Retweets

Retweeting (“RT”) is even easier than the Tweet button, as you can perform the action directly from your Twitter client, or from Twitter.com. I use the same selection criteria (listed above) when retweeting. There’s an added benefit here: the act “sends a little love,” if you will, to the person who posted the original tweet.

Conclusion

And there you have it. If you’re still with me, then I hope this insider’s look at my processes (and thought process) was useful. Use the comments section below to tell me how you go about curating and sharing on Twitter.

Note: I invite you to connect with me on .

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

New Book: 42 Rules of Product Marketing

April 2, 2012

Book: 42 Rules of Product Marketing

Introduction

A great new product marketing book has been published. It’s called “24 Rules of Product Marketing,” and it was assembled by Phil Burton, Gary Parker and Brian Lawley.

You get to hear from 42 product marketers, who share rules, tips and insights from the product marketing trenches. According to the listing at Amazon, “This book will expose you to the experience and knowledge of a group of the world’s leading product marketing experts with a range of perspectives in both consumer and business markets.”

In addition, the book includes some “bonus rules” from Phil, Gary and Brian.

My Top 10 Favorite Rules

Here are my Top 10 favorite rules from the book:

  1. Learn from Your Customers’ Digital Body Language
  2. Help Your Prospect Know “What’s In It For Me?”
  3. Make Your CFO a Social Media Fan
  4. Remember Your Internal Customers
  5. Use Online Metrics for Product Marketing Success
  6. Help Your Sales Team Communicate Your Message
  7. Always Test Your Message
  8. Speak in the Customer’s Language
  9. Turn Your Audience into Advocates
  10. Create Simple Messages for Complex Products

My Contribution

In the interest of disclosure, I contributed to the book. I authored Rule #10, “Make Social Media a Listening Platform.”

While product marketers can drive value (and results) by tweeting, posting to Facebook and uploading videos to YouTube, I suggested that we spend an equal amount of time listening.

I made the analogy that in any conversation, I learn more by listening than I do by speaking. Social media can provide an effective listening platform for market research, insights and pain points, that can all be used to inform you marketing language, launch plans and strategy.

You can purchase the book at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/42-Rules-Product-Marketing-Leading/dp/1607730804

Note: I invite you to connect with me on .

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

Job Posting: Online Events Manager at BNP Media

March 29, 2012

About BNP Media

BNP Media helps people succeed in business. As a team of creative, motivated, accountable professionals, we create and globally deliver targeted, timely, superior information via a wide variety of media that brings our customers closer to their customers. For further information, visit: http://www.bnpevents.com/

Job Description: Online Events Manager

The Online Events Manager is the expert on subject matter related to BNP Media’s online events products. This role is the primary point of contact for service, implementation and support of virtual event projects, serving as a liaison between internal publication staff and external clients.

The Online Events Manager also functions as an advocate for the evolution of features, capabilities and business processes for BNP Media’s online event products and services.

Location

Detroit, MI or Chicago, IL metropolitan areas.

Responsibilities

Event Production

  1. Successfully plan and execute client events and act as client point-of-contact for assigned projects and related issues
  2. Produce live and pre-recorded online events
  3. Must be able to consistently meet project timelines and ensure client expectations are met and exceeded
  4. Provide client training of event platform

Event Marketing

  1. Develop and execute promotional plans for each event including but not limited to print, email, web, and social media advertising.
  2. Write and edit copy for promotional plans.
  3. Collaborate with art directors to develop effective and creative marketing pieces.
  4. Create online graphics and HTML files to be used for events.
  5. Work with Audience management to deploy emails to target audience.

Customer Service

  1. Act as primary client contact. Answer questions, request materials, provide deadlines and make sure they are followed; Explain/educate on event procedures
  2. Develop relationships for future events
  3. Assist registrants with questions, technical assistance, before, during and after event

Accounting

  1. Ensure each event is reaching 50% profit margin, if not investigate
  2. Keep track of expenses/revenue per event
  3. Send IO to accounting and production to make sure billing is done correctly
  4. Balance monthly P&Ls for publications assigned to make sure all transactions are accurate
  5. Balance Virtual Show Report to make sure it balances monthly P&Ls

Technical Programming

  1. Create HTML files

Management

  1. Research current and new online product offerings to become expert on subject matter
  2. Gather feedback from internal/external customers to gauge enhancement and new development opportunities and coordinate implementation plan with Senior Online Events Manager
  3. Prepare detailed documentation about current and new products and features
  4. Work with Senior Online Events Manager to facilitate the implementation of online products/services from concept to completion
  5. Analyze the competitive environment and determine market trends
  6. Manage Online Events Coordinator(s) responsible for virtual events

Desired Skills & Experience

  1. 2+ years of webinar and/or event/project management experience
  2. 2+ years of Marketing related experience
  3. Strong Internet and Web technical understanding
  4. Intermediate experience programming with HTML
  5. Professional experience with Microsoft Office, Photoshop or comparable photo editing software and Dreamweaver or comparable HTML program.
  6. Excellent organizational, planning, management and communication skills
  7. The ability to work effectively with all levels of the organization to complete assigned projects within the specified timeline
  8. The ability to manage multiple deadlines sensitive projects at one time.
  9. The ability to work with minimal supervision
  10. Integrity, Creativity, Intellectual Curiosity, High Standards, Persistence, and Achievement oriented

Contact

Interested in applying? Contact Danielle Belmont, Senior Online Events Manager, belmontd@bnpmedia.com

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

5 Ways, Tips, Things and Reasons on Virtual Events and Social Media

March 26, 2012

Introduction

Regular readers (and pattern matchers) know that many of my 2012 posts have been lists of five. Continuing with my fondness for lists, I thought I’d make a list of lists. So without further ado, here are assorted “lists of five” posts that I recently published.

Google+

5 Ways to Get Started with Google Plus.
5 Tips for Organizing Your Google+ Circles.
5 Tips for Hosting Google+ Hangouts.
5 Reasons Google Plus May Be the Social Network of the Future.

As a special bonus, I’ve organized the four posts (above) into an eBook, which you can download here.

Events

Top 5 Ways Virtual Events Are Like Football Games.
5 Ways Face-to-Face Events Are Like Family Reunions.
5 Hybrid Event Tips for Trade Associations.

Social Media

5 Things I’ve Learned About Pinterest.
5 Things Virtual Event Platforms Can Learn from Pinterest.
5 Reasons I’m Breaking Up With You, TweetDeck.
5 Reasons “Words With Friends” Is Awesome.

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

5 Reasons “Words With Friends” Is Awesome

March 19, 2012

Introduction

While I may be late to the party, I recently started playing Words With Friends. While the game can create some interesting situations (e.g. I recently sat across from a friend at a café, as we silently traded turns from our smartphones – neither of us spoke a word to one another for quite some time!), it also has the power to connect long lost friends and discover new people who share a common interest.

It took me (and my family) 10 minutes before we were all hooked. Words With Friends is awesome. And here’s why.

1) It’s Universal.

You don’t have to be an English or language major to enjoy playing. In fact, words (and images, too) are the common language by which we share life’s experiences. While some games have difficulty crossing cultural boundaries, Words With Friends can be enjoyed in any language or culture. I’m interested to see whether Zynga expands usage of the game to other countries, languages and cultures.

2) It’s cross-platform.

You can play Words With Friends on iOS, Android and Facebook. In my household, we had games going across iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch among family members. And we also had contests going with friends, who were playing on Android phones and tablets. Several members of my parents’ generation are on Facebook (including my parents) – so I have the option of playing with them, too. And isn’t that an interesting statement in itself, where the major platforms include mobile operating systems and … FACEBOOK.

3) It’s cross-generational.

To my earlier point about word games being universal, I found it interesting that my daughter’s generation, who frequently use iPods and tablets, had an interest in playing the game with their parents. On a Saturday evening, my family had the following combination of games going on with another family (we were in our respective homes):

  1. Adults facing adults: 4 games.
  2. Adults facing kids: 2 games.
  3. Kids facing kids: 1 game.

So that’s seven simultaneous games across two families. Words With Friends is the new “Saturday night at the movies.”

4) It’s at a comfortable pace.

Unlike other games where there’s a “time and place,” the pace of Words With Friends is entirely dictated by the two players. And usually, that’s completely fine with both players. My “friend” could take 2 days to make a move, and I wouldn’t mind so much (though I may give him a call or send him a text message after 12 hours). Remember how excited you were to receive a new email, during the early days of email? I get the same excitement when I receive the “It’s your move” notification in this game.

5) It’s the “new social networking.”

While I’ll continue to enjoy reading people’s thoughts on Twitter and checking out friends’ purchases and song selections on Facebook, I think the “new social networking” is about shared experiences. What better a way to “network” with someone than to share the experience of word battles, which take place over the course of a day (or more).

Words With Friends has a convenient chat area, which means you can further share in the experience by passing compliments back and forth. Or, you can lament how the word “za” could be worth 31 points (and who even knew “za” was a word?). The “new social networking” is going to be less about status updates and more about in-experience updates.

Bonus reason: the new check-in (sort of).

I have ongoing Words With Friends contests with my wife. I often receive the “it’s your turn” notification (on my iPhone) during her commutes. In the morning when it’s my turn, I know that she’s safely boarded her commuter train. In the early evening when it’s my turn, I know that she’s on the way home. Isn’t that neat?

Conclusion

Thanks, Words With Friends, for the shared experiences you’ve enabled among family members and friends. To date, I’ve played with people that are geographically quite close to me. The real power, however, is staying with touch with people on the other side of the world through a shared experience.

And with that, I must be off – it’s my turn!

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

What Virtual Event Platforms Can Learn

March 12, 2012

Introduction

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then virtual event platforms may be well served by sending some flattery to social networks. This post is a compilation of past posts and looks at areas from which virtual event platforms can learn.

Social Networks

What virtual event platforms can learn from Pinterest.

What virtual event platforms can learn from Twitter

What virtual event platforms can learn from Facebook.

What virtual event platforms can learn from Quora, Groupon and FarmVille.

Miscellaneous

What virtual event platforms can learn from physical events.

What virtual event platforms can learn from the airline industry.

Virtual Exhibits

Photo credit: The Pug Father on flickr.

What virtual exhibits can learn from the Apple Store.

What virtual exhibits can learn from farmers markets.

Subscribe

Did you enjoy this blog posting? If so, you can subscribe to the feed here: https://allvirtual.me/feed/

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

How to Use Social Media to Improve Your Products #prodmktg

March 7, 2012

Read the full post: http://12most.com/2012/03/07/12-powerful-ways-social-media-improve-products/

Introduction

In my latest post for 12Most.com, I wrote about how product marketers and product managers can improve their offerings via social media. My post is titled “12 Most Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Improve Your Products.”

The 12 Ways

My post covers the following 12 tips:

  1. Understand customer language and terms.
  2. Provide customer service.
  3. Crowdsource new features.
  4. Learn about the competition.
  5. Motivate internal teams.
  6. Share updates and roadmaps with the market.
  7. Ask for input and advice.
  8. Find and solicit beta testers.
  9. Host regular Twitter chats.
  10. Host a Google+ Hangout.
  11. Promote customer events.
  12. Vote for a product name or product feature.

To read all the details, visit the full post here:

http://12most.com/2012/03/07/12-powerful-ways-social-media-improve-products/

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

5 Things I’ve Learned About Pinterest

March 5, 2012

Check out my Pinterest Boards: http://pinterest.com/dshiao/

Introduction

Pinterest, an online pinboarding site, has gotten a fair share of press lately. In fact, TechCrunch shared exclusive data from comScore indicating that Pinterest hit the “10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history.” Wow.

I’ve recently joined Pinterest, maintaining pin boards on Major League Baseball and social media, among other things. Based on my experience to date on the service, I thought I’d share five things I’ve learned about Pinterest.

1) Sharing Begets More Sharing.

I currently have 143 pins across 5 boards. Across those 143 pins, only 8 have received interactions, in the form of Likes, Comments or Repins. In some cases, those interactions were quite “strong” – a pin on Jeremy Lin received 24 Repins and 4 Likes. That being said, those 8 pins represent 5% of my total pins. This tells me that, while folks may visit and peruse my boards, the interactions stem from users seeing the pins on other users’ boards.

A few users Like and Repin a given pin, which then “promotes” that pin to their followers, who in turn share it with their followers. It’s not surprising, then, that a few pins receive the most attention and interaction.

Side note: it’s been reported that 80+% of Pinterest users are women. And it seems that the pins attracting interaction on my MLB Board (from women) are those of up and coming players, such as Mason Williams of the Yankees and Wes Timmons of the A’s.

2) Spend a Lazy Weekend Afternoon Shopping (Online).

Pinterest detects when you type a price into the description of a pin (e.g. “$100”) and overlays a price tag on top of the pin image (for example, this $5 Disney product). They then provide a “Gifts” option in the main navigation. When you click on “Gifts,” you’re able to select a price range (for instance, this $1-$20 set of gifts).

This is a neat way to browse through assorted shopping items curated by the Pinterest community. Beware, though. Another thing I learned is that Pinterest is inserting affiliate links in pins, which means that they may be earning money on the pins that you post.

3) The “Pin It” Button Makes All the Difference.

If you’re getting started, be sure to add the “Pin It” Button to your browser’s bookmarks bar. It made all the difference for me. When I first started, I’d find an interesting image, copy the URL, go to my Pinterest page, click “Add,” and paste the URL. Then, I’d have to click through the images that Pinterest found and select the one I wanted to use.

Now, I simply click the “Pin It” Button from the current page and it overlays all the images on top of the page (including the dimensions of each image). I click on the image I want, select my Board, then write the description. I’m done. And it’s made a huge difference.

4) Categories Are Selected by the Pinner.

When creating a new Board, Pinterest asks you to select the category (e.g. Art, Sports, Technology, etc.). Pinterest then allows you to browse by category, both on its web site and in its mobile app. While users have been pretty good about matching their pins to the corresponding Board’s category, it does mean that occasionally you’ll see an image that has nothing to do with its assigned category.

5) Boards of the Rich and Famous.

From the Pinterest site, you can select “About” -> “Team” and view the “Team” page: http://pinterest.com/about/team/. On this page, you’ll see photos of (presumably) the entire Pinterest team. And with a nice touch, they list an assortment of their pins and link to their Pinterest page (see this page for team member Ryan P). I’d like to see companies do this more often: let us get to know the team and let the team show the world how they’re using the product.

Conclusion

It’s been fun being a part of the Pinterest community. I’ll be interested to watch the assorted use cases that arise. We’ve already heard about it being used for planning weddings and sharing information at events. And oh, speaking of weddings, I have an anniversary coming up soon, so I’m headed to Pinterest to … do some shopping!

Related: 5 Things Virtual Event Platforms Can Learn From Pinterest

Note: I invite you to connect with me on .

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

5 Reasons I’m Breaking Up With You, TweetDeck

February 27, 2012

Introduction

We’ve had a great time together, TweetDeck. And believe me, it’s not you, it’s me. Breaking up is hard to do, so I’ve decided to compose this posting to let you know. Yes, yes, that was quite impersonal of me. Let me explain why I feel the way I do.

1) Curbing Application Proliferation.

Despite the emergence of SaaS, we have more and more applications running on our desktop or laptop. If I could accomplish all of my Twitter activity within my browser, then you, unfortunately, are one less application I need to have running (I’m so sorry).

And I’ll tell you a dirty little secret about social streams: they consume lots of memory! My browsers tend to consume 250-700+ MB and you, while consuming less, still needed 100-200+ MB of tender loving RAM. With one less application, my computer is already running faster. Like I said, it’s me, not you.

2) The New @Connect Tab.

Yes, yes, it seems I’m already seeing other services. This one happens to be called Twitter.com. The New Twitter (or is it the “New New New Twitter”?) has a nifty “@Connect” tab. Under “Interactions,” it lists everything I want to know:

  1. Mentions.
  2. Retweets.
  3. When someone “Favorites” my tweet.
  4. New followers.
  5. When someone adds me to their Twitter List.

You, TweetDeck, had columns available for mentions and new followers, but I’d often miss seeing retweets. And, to have this all in a single place is useful to me. So in this case, TweetDeck, I’m afraid it’s you and not me.

3) Twitter “Home” Got Better.

Yes, the new love of my life, Twitter.com, improved the “Home” tab. I remember the day I first laid eyes on you, TweetDeck. When I entered a URL, you’d auto-shorten it for me. And oh, did I love that. But this is now a standard feature on most tweet services, including Twitter.com.

In addition, I like glancing at the “Who to follow” area of “Home” and always seeing someone I recognize. I don’t mind the fact that it really should be “Whom to follow,” as I’m not a stickler or anything like that.

And finally, when my tweet stream is flying off the edge, I like how Twitter.com shows, “372 new Tweets” (or whatever the number is) and forces a click (from me) to display them. I think we were moving too fast together, TweetDeck, as your tweet stream would constantly flow.

4) Nifty new #Discover tab.

I like the nifty new #Discover tab on New Twitter. It’s rendered like a newspaper site, with key topics as headlines. I can follow a link and see tweets on the selected topic. And there’s always a single content piece (article) beneath the headline. So I can browse interesting articles, if I’m so inclined. My oh my, TweetDeck, I wonder if Twitter has crossed over from technology provider to media company?

5) But Wait.

But here’s the one thing Twitter.com cannot provide me. Your columns, TweetDeck. I could set up a number of columns for topics and hash tags and be able to glance at the related streams. I used to monitor mentions of my employer, along with the #eventprofs hash tag. On Twitter.com, I need to manually check those “feeds” from time to time.

Conclusion

Well, TweetDeck, you were certainly my first love. But you know what? Twitter acquired you in May 2011, so while I’m leaving you, I’m certainly staying in the same neighborhood. And I bet that your parent doesn’t mind that I’m now exclusively using Twitter.com. Take care and perhaps we’ll see each other again.

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

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