#ASW10 — Day One of Three (Part 1)

Sunday is the official start of the summit! If you hadn’t picked up your badge, then your first stop would be the badge pickup. I already had mine so it was smooth sailing for me. However, I did run into a few known faces immediately upon entering the circular sensation that housed the official summit passes.

The Rio’s conference rooms are set far behind the hotel lobby; past the (closed) swimming pools, going deeper and further down the dragon’s mouth. It was almost unbearable to my little feet. Even slender affiliates were huffing and puffing all along the corridors. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but I did hear some remarks on the matter here and there.

Now onto the matter at hand! You should have had your time planned out ahead of time, and I was glad I did. It’s easy to get lost in the array of the hustle and bustle that is affiliate summit. Fear not, my young padewans. The first session of the day was at hand, and I, your humble servant, was ready-willing-and-able to attack it head-on, with my sword on one hand (mp3 recorder) and shield in the other (laptop). The name of the beast you ask? Well, it was called Effective Social Media Techniques moderated by Andrew Wee. Panelists included Rebecca Kelley and Keith Plocek.

This monster flew by me faster than a steaming dragon, but I did manage to pick off some scales. For instance, we shouldn’t start a tweet with the word I as it is too one-sided. A later session would reveal that it’s not what your followers — nay customers, can do for you, it’s what you, my friends, can do for them! Also, you should aim for at least half of your micro blogs (tweets) to be retweeted to serve their purpose. Write compelling Twopy (twitter copy) and the masses will pass it along like a plague there’s no tomorrow. Someone once said that information is like bread, for every hour of delay that the info is not “out there,” there is an hour of decay. (Dr. Chialdini)

Studies have shown that the best time to make your ever-important muppet-run-worthy tweet is on a Wednesday, around 2:45 PM New York time. Second best time is Mondays. ALWAYS try to leave 25 characters of free space at the end of your tweet, so that it is more likely to get retweeted (RT @the_old_fashioned way) The less your followers have to work at a RT, the better.

Another important, yet blissfully unknown is the tweet hijack phenomenon. Whenever possible, and find out really, whenever possible, do not retweet using the suffix tag. [" (via @DavidDOchoa) " for example] It dilutes the tweet, and hijacks it as if you were the original poster of the content. I have been disappointed in the past.

If you inadvertently have an app on your smart-phone that tags the original poster using the “via…” suffix, then get another app, or try to change the settings. Why is this so important you may ask? We all must give credit where credit is due my friends. Imagine the following scenario taking place; would YOU like it?

• BOBBY_JOE | “Free popcorn will be given out to the first one thousand people who attend the open premiere of The Lion King in Times Square” #MUFASAFTW
• PENNY_SUE | “Free popcorn will be given out to the first one thousand people who attend the open premiere of The Lion King in Times Square” #MUFASAFTW (via @BOBBY_JOE)
• NICOLE_PANDAFAN | RT @PENNY_SUE “Free popcorn will be given out to the first one thousand people who attend the open premiere of The Lion King in Times Square” #MUFASAFTW (via …
• SIMBA_PRYDE | RT @NICOLE_PANDAFAN @PENNY_SUE “Free popcorn will be given out to the first one thousand people who attend the open premiere of The Lion King in Times Square” #MUFASAFTW

By the time “SIMBA_PRYDE” read it, she didn’t know it came from BOBBY_JOE, but rather thinks it was originally by PENNY_SUE. Penny_Sue gets the credit for this awesome tweet, and possibly more visitors to her profile and blog. Not fair, is it?

So that is tweet hijacking.

It is at this time that I wish to let you in on a little secret my learnéd colleges: it is okay to leave a session that just doesn’t suit you, as there are three others going on simultaneously in other castles. Don’t be alarmed at the comings and goings of your fellow attendees, nor let it distract you from consuming the nectar of the gods and goddesses that are there for you!

After slaying the information beast, and returning to the belly of the bigger beast, it is then that I was approached by “the Hoff” Greg Hoffman. He said that he follows me on Twitter, and it is a great feeling to hear this. Greg happens to be my (OPM) affiliate manger for PokenZoo. We quickly high-four’d and I was on my way to tackle another session. I was on the look out for the blogger’s room, but it eluded me at this time. I really wish I had stayed a while and chatted with Greg; he’s a nice guy and is there to help me. I didn’t see him again until the morrow.

Stay tuned for the next part of day one of three! Don’t forget to click the retweet button below!