Twitter Chat Schedule

I had the wonderful pleasure of giving a talk about social media during the Girlfriends Getaway Bolton Landing, and one of the items I brought up was twitter chats. If it's a topic, there is likely a twitter chat for it. From fitness to government, there is a chat for everyone and every professional.

I told the women in my seminar I would post the link to the twitter chat schedule on my site so they could check out all the amazing discussions going on around the world about topics that interest them and connect with like-minded people. So, here is the schedule -- it's a Google docs file.

Dear Twitter, You Stink at Your Own Game. Please Help!

Dear @twitter,

I'm a social media coordinator for a public relations firm, and part of my responsibilities include participating in various Twitter chats. Being visible in those hash-tagged searches is vital to my job function. However, for the past three, or four, months I do not come up as a participant when searching the appropriate hash tag.

The problem came to a head last night while trying to be part of a chat:

My response:

I've read your Twitter support center FAQs and the issue is not on my end. (I have also tried tweeting the same thing from a different account and it works fine)  I've tweeted at your support team, and got no response. I've even filled a formal request with your support department explaining this, and still have not heard anything.

For a company that has become an industry changer when it comes to brands, customer service and having to be responsive to issues, you certainly stink at your own game.

Please help!

Thanks,

@mmaskaly

Dallas Fox Station Mocks Social Media

MyFoxDFW.com, also known as Fox 4, in Dallas, Texas recently created a Saturday Night Live type skit on the use of social media when covering the news.

While funny on the surface, it shows some news outlets still don't see the importance of social media, and think it's a joke. In the video they mock Skype, tweeting live from the scene and checking in at geo-based applications like FourSquare, among other things. When asked why the reporter is using Skype, he says because his cameraman got shot.

As a fellow Tweeter who is a journalist pointed out, there was a lot of production that went into creating this skit. If it was for a roast event or charity, I can understand, but if it was done to just do it -- what a waste of time and energy.

Social media is another tool to add to a reporters arsenal of ways to deliver the news and get information our to people, and like it or not, you have to accept it. We all remember what happened to journalism when things started going digital, right? Let's not be behind the times again.

In the interest of full disclosure, I used to work for Fox News Channel, and now work in public relations as a social media coordinator.