the President is coming!

Today is the day.  President Barack Obama is coming to Chattanooga to give a speech about jobs and the economy at our local Amazon fulfillment center.  (Not sure how Amazon fits with high paying manufacturing, but I guess we'll find out.)

Teams from the White House have been here since last week, and parts of Chattanooga have gone berserk.   I love Chattanooga, but our little twitter community didn't quite know how to handle the impending Presidential visit.  The debate over what hashtag to use even made nbcnews.com, and if you look closely, you'll see a quote from me that was meant to highlight how ridiculous I thought people were being.

As silly as the immediate reaction was, I expect some pretty awesome online coverage of President Obama's visit today.  If you want to follow along online, here are my tips.  If you have any additional links let me know, and I'll add them as the day goes on!

What Hashtags I'm following:
#POTUSinCHA
#ObamaNooga
#BarackIsInTheHouse [It'll probably just be me, but who knows ;)]

Who to follow:
The main hashtags will be flooded today, so I recommend setting up at group of trusted people to follow.  This is a good place to start, or you can follow my list here, I'll be updating it all day.
@ChloeNooga (from Amazon)
@wrcb
@antwanharris
@Drew_BolleaNC9
@JamesNooga (from the airport)
@ChadHenderson (An on-site, non media perspective from Amazon)
@DanOKennedy (from the airport this morning, lots of photos)

Who not to follow:
I'll only add to this when people get annoying.
My first thought is @Newschannel9 with polls this morning and not actual coverage.

Live Coverage:
TimesFreePress - real time twitter feeds. LINK
WRCB  - Live video stream of their coverage starting at 11am, and including the President's speech. LINK

Twitter ettiquite tips:

• When you're actually following a hashtag, it gets pretty annoying when RTs take over.  If you're not adding anything new to the tweet, switch to the old school RT style, and drop the hashtag.
• Give credit where credit is due.  RT's do this inherently, but if you're linking an article, name the source in the tweet, or add their twitter handle.  Reporters will be working hard today, and they deserve the credit.
• If you want to be RT'd, keep your tweet short.  Leave people room to RT & comment on your message.
• Thank people for RTs.  Please and Thank You go a long way in the online world as well as the real world, and after all, we are in the south.

If you're not interested:
Take advantage of twitter filters to filter out unwanted tweets.  You won't get rid of everything, but it helps a lot!

my favorite use of twitter - #HOTNOW

So this is a little random, but yesterday was Fat Tuesday, and I didn't eat a single donut or dessert.  I'm not sure I can (or want to) hold out again today.

Since there is a Krispy Kreme donut in my future, I thought I'd share one of my favorite twitter gems,  @KKHotLight. You can tweet #HOTNOW + your zip code, and @KKHotLight will tell you if there is a Hot Now sign lit up near you.

There may not be a donut in my jump-in-the-car-right-now immediate future, but I'm not ashamed to admit that moment is coming.

If you're not on twitter, Krispy Kreme has other ways to keep up with the Hot Now Light in real time in the form of apps, search pages, and a desktop widget.

Click here for the website, not my blurry shrunken screen capture

It's like they know that sign pulls cars into the parking lot.

election night twitter tips

Tonight promises to be one of the biggest nights in the history of twitter.  If the presidential debates were any indication, the tweets will be flying so fast it will be hard to keep up.  If you're planning on being on twitter tonight, it will probably help to go in with a strategy....and my strategy starts with TweetDeck.(Yes, I know there are alternatives to TweetDeck, but it's still my favorite.)

TweetDeck is a organizational tool that, among other things, helps you filter and sort your tweets.  You can create different columns of tweets based on groups of users, search results, and direct interactions.  TweetDeck can be used as a stand alone desktop program, in your web browser, or on your cell phone.  I'm a huge fan of one of the older desktop versions (38.1 is the BOMB) but all of the versions have the same basic functionality, and will help you survive tonight without information overload.

If you are as excited about watching the news unfold on twitter tonight as I am, here are a few of my tips:
(Tips for anyone who want's to be on twitter tonight, but avoid the crazy talk are at the end.)

1. Allow yourself some time to get your TweetDeck set up for tonight.  This goes for new users and TweetDeck pros.  It won't take long, but you're going to want to give yourself some time to customize your view of twitter tonight. 
2. Set up a column for trusted sources.  If you want to know what Tom Brokaw has to say about the election, look him up.  Most of your favorite news organizations, anchors, bloggers, and pundits are on twitter.  If you haven't already followed them, look them up.  You can always un-follow them tomorrow.  If your best friend has the big scoop of what's going on in Ohio, by all means put him in this column.  Think about whose tweets you don't want to miss, and put all of those people together in one place.
3. DO NOT use #election2012 as a search column in TweetDeck.  Tweets will be scrolling faster than the eye can see.  Seriously.   Generic hashtags are not going to work tonight. 
4. Use specific hashtags as your search columns.  If you don't know what hashtags you want to follow, look at what your politic-savvy friends are using in their tweets and start with that.  If you're interested in state specific information use the state abbreviation + either 2012 or the district.  So #tn2012 would be any election for Tennessee, and #tn03 would be the third district of Tennessee.  If you're interested in a specific issue, use a buzzword or abbreviation for that issue. Searching for #equalrights, #equalpay, #economy #DADT (don't ask, don't tell).
5. Use filters.  If you don't want to hear about what the other side has to say, filter it out.  My version of TweetDeck Desktop has filters (include/exclude) specific to each column.  The web version I just checked out has global exclude filters that apply to all of TweetDeck, so you have to be careful since the filter will apply even to the columns you have set up for specific users.  If you're going to be on twitter tonight, but don't want to be inundated with election mess, filters will be your best friend tonight.

A trusted sources column really is going to be your best resource tonight, and here's a look at who I will be watching closely:

• @tombrokaw Special correspondent, @NBCNews, New York, NY
• @naterawlings: high school friend and @Time reporter
• @AnnCurry, NBC News, NYC
• @TheDailyShow: believe it or not, Comedy Central does news pretty well.
• @RoryAlbanese: Daily Show Exec Producer & Writer, Stand-Up Comedian 
• @CharlieRose: host of @CBSThisMorning and @CharlieRoseShow
•  @ClayTravisBGID, sports author & funny person
• @andersoncooper: CNN anchor, NYC
• @jimmyfallon:late Night TV
• @nooganews: local news
• @janabarnello: former local news anchor, now in ME
• @topolk: college friend & NC resident
• @trueparallels: college friend & SC resident
• @gracevancleave: high school friend, former DNC employee, IA resident
• @phatsdawg: interwebs friend & IN resident (are you seeing the trend here)
• @barackobama: no introduction needed
• @sree: @ColumbiaJourn professor
• @support: twitter user support, in case something goes wrong
  

Please let me know who you will be following so I can add them to my tweetdeck tonight!

It's also worth mentioning that I'll also be spending a good amount of time on digg.com & tumblr tonight.  Those guys always have something interesting to say!

EDIT 11/6/12 18:23: If you're looking for a good hashtag to use and to follow try #TIMEVote!

NASCAR on twitter?

When I joined twitter this spring no one in NASCAR was there. None of my favorite drivers, and there weren't many 'official' sources of NASCAR news. Oh how times have changed. My NASCAR column on tweetdeck is now my most active group of people, and having grown up in the sport, I love it!


Who I follow
Kevin & Delana Harvick: @KevinHarvick & @DeLanaHarvick
Michael Waltrip: @mw55
Kenny Wallace: @Kenny_Wallace
Kyle Petty: @kylepetty
Bobby Labonte: @Bobby_Labonte
Elliott Sadler: @Elliott_Sadler
Richard Petty Motorsports: @RPMotorsports
Hendrick Motorsports: @HendrickInfo
Richard Childress Racing: @RCRracing
Greenville Pickens Speedway: @GP_Speedway

The drivers are pretty funny and candid. It's a lot of just what they do on a daily basis, but also driver to driver conversation, and some fan interaction. They post a lot of pictures, which is always interesting to see. The teams post a lot about driver and promotional appearances, and when they will be featured on different TV shows. They also provide some cool race day insight into how the different teams are running throughout the day, driver feedback, etc.


How to find NASCAR people on twitter
The easiest way to find out which drivers were on twitter was to check out who the official NASCAR twitter accounts were following. It was a lot easier than doing multiple searches. I also found people that I didn't originally think of, and/or didn't expect to be on twitter. This is where I started:

http://twitter.com/NASCARSays/following
http://twitter.com/NASCAR/following --- I don't know if this is an official account or not, but I did find my favorite new account of the day AJ Allmendinger (@AJDinger)
**Editor's Note: The Dinger's Twitter acct is no longer active. Sad

Who am I not following? Leave me a message in the Comments :)

RT - What?

I think differently. My mind works in mysterious ways that don't always align with the common world view.


RT on twitter
The first time I saw "RT @twitter_user_name" what automatically ran through my head was the phrase: "right at twitter_user_name." As in a shout out to the person who first came up with the material. Makes sense right? I thought so. I was thoroughly disappointed to find out in conversation with a few friends that "RT @" really means "ReTweet of twitter_user_name's post", or, as I like to think of it: 'What He Said.'

Why its confusing:
What still bothers me about the whole ReTweet thing, is the syntax that goes along with it. In apps like TweetDeck, PowerTwitter etc., the citation comes before the text of the original tweet. This makes no sense to me, and makes commenting on the tweet tricky. Some people use quotes around the original tweet, or around their comment. Others use brackets, or '...' to break up the tweet. And then different people use parenthesis at the very end. Call me old school, but this is one instance where I think the older, call it analogue even, traditional method of citations works best.

[nerd moment: the first time I thought about this I definitely dusted off my MLA Handbook from High School]

My Solution:
According to Perdue's MLA Formatting and Style Guide, the format for citing a short quote (a tweet fits that description) in a text is this:

Applied to twitter it looks something like this:

"Really cool tweet that I wanted to share" (RT @twitter_user_name) or
"Really cool tweet that I wanted to share" (@twitter_user_name)

Either way just makes sense. You can add your comments before or after the ReTweet, and everyone understands who is saying what. In its basic form, it links back to the twitter_user_name's feed, functioning similar to a works cited. Most Apps do an even better job of tying 'RT' and '@' to conversations between users as well.

My Thoughts on Twitter
My view on twitter is that it is a new, public, communication medium. Tweets can spark conversation between individuals who otherwise may have never communicated. (Awesome) I think that its important to share your thoughts clearly, and this take on ReTweets helps with clarity...I'm also that girl who tries to tweet in complete sentences, and gets frustrated when people use too many pronouns in their tweets, and think the world is full of mind readers.

What do you think?