When I first opened my Twitter account, I had a great deal of trouble learning to “say what I want to say” in the 140 character limit. After serving for years as a minister, I have learned to write in a conversational style. This method does not work well in the new world of social media.

Then I went through a denial phase. I just started doing multiple “tweets’ to get my whole message out. That didn’t work either. No one was responding.

So, I went back to an idea first taught to me by my philosophy/religion professor in undergraduate school. He had us write one page summaries of all our reading. Talk about a task! This is now my “mantra” for Twitter.

So how long should tweets be? The answer is simple in concept: you should tweet with the fewest possible characters to get you message out! Just like a haiku: one concept.

Other considerations for the length of a Tweet include two important items: any “re-tweet or index code” and any URL you add. My re-tweet is @celticozarkian. That knocks out 15 characters. If I index my social media tweets, #socialmedia , that will take 12. Add a tinyurl, and you can easily be down to 100 characters left.

Here are some new tips on Tweeting for length of message:

• Make the message component 80 characters or less. 50 seems to be the new 140, so shoot for that!
• Make your URL as short as possible. There does not need to be clear meaning in the URL itself. Example: my social media site is http://socialmediaintegration.info . I don’t need all this in the URL, to get people interested in clicking the URL. That is the job of the message.
• Text message jargon is typically OK. Most people now understand an OMG, or IDK, or LOL. It saves you space. (My daughter says I still will not be cool!)
• Use caps to express emotion. Just don’t do all caps, unless you intend to be angry.

Talk to you again soon,

Ray Province

Ray Province is a retired minister, who now works as an IT programmer in the healthcare industry. He also owns Celtic Ozark Solutions, and IT Company specializing in website, development, SEO, and social media marketing. You can reach him at celticozarksolutions@gmail.com or @celticozarkian on Twitter.

I wanted to share a video from Scott Willoughby, regarding his research into what makes Twitter work for some people. Scott has taken a pure “research” methodology to this. I will be adding articles on this theme, with some of my thoughts on how I have built my 4000+ Twitter following. Enjoy!

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – How to Get Re-Tweeted from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Seth Godin recently gave an interesting talk about social media trends for the future. Seth argues that that days of “hypnotizing people into buying via mass media” are over. Instead, he argues that people are redeveloping “belonging groups” which he calls “tribes.” Check out his amazing talk. P.S., if you do not know who Seth is, take a peak at www.squidoo.com!

Blogging is a geat way to start to develop your social media network. It is also a great way to promote your business and services. Let’s take a moment and look at blogs.

By definition, a blog is a type of website used to share information, articles, videos, pictures, opinions on some topic. The sites are usually maintained by an individual or small group, though large corporations are starting to get in the game.
The word derives its meaning from weblog.

My favorite blogs to use are set up on WordPress, Blogger,Bloglines, and Tumblr. Each of these sites will allow you to set a blog, or multiple blogs, for free. You do not even need to write on different subjects. You may carry the same article, or post, on each of the blogs you set up.

My favorite thing to do with a blog is share information on a particular subject of interest. You are reading such a blog entry now. I am fascinated with blogging on social media, and its affects on our current society. So, I share this bit of expertise on these blog sites.

The best blog articles are 500 to 1000 words in length. They will contain keywords in the title, and a couple of times during the article. In this case, I am writing on social media integration. I have used these so called “keywords” in my title, and in the article.

A keyword is a word that someone might use to find something about my business in a informational search on a site like google or yahoo.
So, I use the keywords social,media, and integration as a way for people to find my work on the Internet. In fact, I even own a website named <a href=”http://ping.fm/s8WKY%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EI”%3Ehttp://ping.fm/s8WKY%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EI%3C/a%3E%20use%20the%20big%20blogs%20because%20of%20the%20respect%20they%20have%20gained%20through%20the%20years.%20%20In%20addition,%20search%20engines%20like%20google.com%20place%20a%20value%20on%20these%20blogs%20sites,%20for%20their%20time%20in%20business%20and%20the%20general%20quality%20of%20the%20information%20that%20comes%20from%20them.%20%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThe%20last%20piece%20of%20information%20I%20would%20like%20to%20share%20is%20in%20regards%20to%20the%20quality%20of%20the%20articles.%20%20A%20well%20crafted,%20highly%20informational%20article%20is%20typically%20well%20received.%20%20That%20is,%20however,%20not%20always%20easy%20to%20do%20in%20terms%20of%20the%201000%20word%20limit.%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EIf%20you%20have%20not%20started%20blogging%20on%20your%20talents,%20or%20your%20business%20or%20services,%20why%20not%20get%20started%20today.%20%20I%20am%20always%20available%20to%20help%20with%20this%20task.%20You%20can%20reach%20me%20at%20contactus@celticozarkian.com%20or%20@celticozarkian%20on%20Twitter!%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3Eslainte,%3Cbr%20/%3ERay%20Province%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3ERay%20Province%20is%20a%20retired%20minister,%20and%20currently%20works%20in%20IT%20programming%20for%20a%20healthcare%20company.%20He%20is%20also%20the%20owner%20of%20Celtic%20Ozark%20Solutions,%20an%20IT%20company%20that%20specializes%20in%20website%20development,%20SEO,%20and%20social%20media%20integration.%20%20You%20can%20get%20more%20information%20on%20this%20topic%20at%20%3Ca%20href=”><span style=”color: #0060ff;”>http://ping.fm/YEPC0</span></a> or <a href=”http://ping.fm/36UWc”><span style=”color: #0060ff;”>http://ping.fm/36UWc</span></a>

I work in the healthcare industry. So, I get a lot of opportunity to meet many people, and observe many events. I recently came across a new example that I believe helps one get at the concept of social media integration.

I new class was being offered to nursing staff on how to properly chart on patients. The class was set up for staff having difficulty accuractely charting on patients. It was meant to be helpful. It ended up being enlightening.

Among the people present, all but one was actively making use of some form of text messaging or online microblog. In most cases, these staff members were active “Tweeters.” There’s you sign! We are now doing remedial education for a generation of Twitter users who are use to describing their whole world in 140 characters or less!

One more example: I like to call my daughter often. Just to make sure college is going well, job is okay. I can ring her cell number and go almost directly to voicemail. I can turn around, make handy use of my Vlingo program on my Blackberry, and text her the same message. Almost immediately, I get an answer.

Are you getting the idea? Social media integration is a form of communication that makes use of software and hardware technology in conjunction with typical human forms of communication and social interaction.
It has almost become a sixth sense.

If you are not studying the concept of how we are integrating social media into our methods of speech communication and social interaction, you need to be! If you still have doubts as to the efficacy of this new revolution, go have a discussion with the editor of your local newspaper. Ask them how business is. Ask them about the paper’s market penetration for people under 30 years of age. it is here to stay.

If you would like to become part of the online discussion group about this subject, please use the link below to get more information. <a href=”http://celticozarkian.com/joinme.html”>Social Media Integration Revolution</a>

slainte,

Ray Province

Ray Province is an IT programmer by trade, and owner of <a href=”http://celticozarkian.com”>The Celtic Ozarkian</a>, a website that chronicles <a href=”http://lifeintheozarks.info”>life in the Ozarks</a>. He is also the owner of Celtic Ozark Solutions, a company that specializes in website development, SEO, and social media integration. You can contact him at <a href=”mailto:contactus@celticozarkian.com”>contactus@celticozarkian.com</a> or @celticozarkian on Twitter.