Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

Kaitlin
Doody

The Power of the #Hashtag

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

When describing Twitter hashtags to clients, we typically describe them as a method for aggregating similar content and community building. Basically, when a Twitter user tags a keyword with the hash - or pound symbol (#) - the Tweet will appear in the conversation thread on that specific topic.

In the past year and a half, many online Twitter chats have cropped up - more than 100 Twitter chat schedules are tracked here. Reminiscent of AIM chat room-style group discussions, this more refined method of group dialogue allows Twitter users to virtually meet with people throughout the Twitterverse. By tagging their posts with the same hashtag, users can follow the conversation surrounding their shared topic of interest. Most groups have a set time they meet each week and typically, a moderator will field questions and pose them to the group to ensure the dialogue continues to flow.

Chat groups are always welcoming new participants and even if you don't feel like interacting, interested individuals can simply follow along with the group's hashtag at their designated meeting time. Twitter chat groups provide a uniquely useful and efficient method for connecting, interacting and learning. Public relations and communications chat groups allow industry newcomers, seasoned experts and everyone in between to provide and share a variety of perspectives and obtain 140-character snapshots of qualitative insights. For example, @Mikinzie, a PR college student, participates in #prstudchat because she values this weekly time to network with "awesome PR pros who are always willing to talk/ help." (more...)

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Erin
Turner

My E-Patient Twitter Success Story

Friday, February 26th, 2010

When I arrived at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota a few weeks ago, I was asked: "Who referred you to us?" My answer was not traditional: "Twitter."

For the past five years, I've suffered with pain in my right wrist on a daily basis, despite regular treatment from an orthopedic surgeon. I was diagnosed with an LT ligament tear and told that my only surgical option was a partial fusion of my wrist - a treatment he did not yet recommend and I was unable to accept as a solution. At the time, I remember having a conversation with my father: "You hear about these ballplayers tearing things and coming back to play the next season," he said. "It seems like there should be a better solution than that." (more...)

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Kaitlin
Doody

The Health Tweeder: Aggregating Health-Related Twitter Content

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Wondering what the Twitterverse's most commonly discussed health categories are? Well, look no further because Pixels & Pills, a collaborative effort between two pharmaceutical marketing firms, has developed a free visualization tool to measure online conversations surrounding a variety of medical topics.

The Health Tweeder uses search terms, hashtags and handles pertaining to a given disease state to pool results into a feed of Twitter updates. The keywords for different health categories populate a vibrant lab of colorful petri dishes, which you can click on to reveal the most recent health-related Tweets. "Growing and shrinking based on the volume of content at any one time, each dish, and all of them combined, provide a dynamic view of dialogue in real time," said Mike Myers, president of Palio, one of the collaborating firms. (more...)

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Molly
Hippolitus

Top Digital Technology and Social Media News this Week

Friday, September 11th, 2009

google_wave_logo1. Google Makes Waves in Social Media World

This week Google announced the newest way to participate in the digital conversation: the Wave. Google Wave is a collaborative online conversation that allows multiple forms of media to be shared among the participants.  Why wait for an email or check your replies on Twitter when you can "listen" to the conversation keystroke by keystroke? With features such as real-time typing, recorded transcripts (for those recently joining the conversation), and the ability to embed the Wave on different sites for others to view and partake in, the Wave is speculated to make Tweeting and e-mailing look archaic.  Blogger, author, and social media expert Mark Senak is so fired up about the revolutionary communication tool, he goes so far as to compare it to the invention of air conditioning - something we will never be able to imagine what it was like to go without.  Read more about the revolutionary Google Wave, and also what it means for Pharma, Eye on FDA: Google Wave 3 - How Will Google Wave Communications Be Regulated - If At All? (more...)

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Spectrum

Twitter. It’s a teenager not a monster, relatively speaking

Monday, July 27th, 2009

The greatest thing about new media is its ability to constantly change. For some businesses, Twitter is a plunge into the unknown and a scary one at that. Every variable is a radical, and there are no set 'control' parameters for a social network. People will say what they feel; it is the nature of the beast.

So what is your biggest fear: Spam? Don't know how or where to even begin?

Twitter has an answer for both.

Twitter 101

Image from XEquals+Blog

Spam be gone

As of this week, Twitter has done a major overhaul, flushing out spammers on the network. Many tweeters are relieved at the network's response, after several Twitter accounts experienced a massive disappearance in followers within the last week. Thus far, the estimated number of terminated spam accounts reaches into the thousands with plenty more on the way

Twitter For Business

Another great response from the growing network, Twitter launched its Twitter 101 For Business earlier this week. The comprehensive site gives all the basics from a Twitter overview to how to get started to a vocabulary list to case studies.  An easy read, and chalked with information, the site makes Twitter tangible to a new user, in a non-threatening way. The link to the guide is listed on the bottom tool bar of every Twitter page, entitled Business, allowing for easy access to the materials.

With developments like these, equivocal concerns by users are surely to be reconciled. Twitter is still young, but is a powerhouse in the world of social media and a mainstay that should not be taken lightly. New technology and forums like Twitter allow you to be nimble and move organically through cyberspace if used correctly.

Just as teenagers grow up, Twitter will evolve with time, making developments and changes in response to what is happening in its surroundings. But if you ever get frustrated and want to scream at it, think Zen, or what would your mother say?

(more...)

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Erica
Anderson

Paging Dr. Google?

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Today I caught up with Susannah Fox, Associate Director at Pew Internet and American Life Project. Fox and I are both in New York City for Personal Democracy Forum, a two day event dedicated to how technology is changing politics.

I was fortunate enough to get a few minutes of Fox's time, who recently published a study with Pew called "The Social Life of Health Information." Hear what she has to say about years of public opinion polling  - what is has shown about patients, how they find health information, how the Internet has changed things...and how it has kept them just the same.

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