Last week Twitter announced that you would soon be able to poll your followers and other users on the platform with a multiple choice question.

Coming soon! We're rolling out the ability for everyone to create polls on Twitter: https://t.co/pH5a8q9Ujz pic.twitter.com/ijAKEMUdf1

— Twitter (@twitter) October 21, 2015

If you want the public’s opinion on something — what to name your dog, who will win tonight’s game, which election issue people care about most — there’s no better place to look than on Twitter.

For poll creators, this is a great new way to engage with Twitter’s massive audience and understand exactly what people think. And for those participating, it’s a very easy way to make your voice heard.

Here's how it works: 

1. Select the icon you would normally click to compose a tweet (this functionality will be available on OSX, Android, and desktop when it is fully rolled out).
   
2. From there you can click the poll icon which will allow you to create your own two-choice poll right from the compose box.
   
   
   
3. Type your question into the Compose New Tweet box and add your carefully selected two choices into the lines below.
   
4. When you're finished, click Tweet!

Once you click Tweet, your poll will remain live for 24 hours. Anyone can vote on any poll and how you voted is not shared publicly. They can also choose to share, favorite, and comment on the poll using the @Reply function.

So here's my question to you...

How do you feel about the new Twitter Polls? For more info: https://t.co/5MxRBemh7Y #socialmedia #TwitterPolls

— Katelyn Davis (@katelynshelby) November 5, 2015

My Thoughts

• Much needed addition. Although in the past Twitter has offered a few ways to participate in and conduct polls by tweeting questions and tracking replies, tallying hashtag votes, or asking followers to favorite or retweet to vote it was difficult and time consuming.
• Poll choices are kept short. I know Twitter is the king of short-hand but the character limit for the poll responses are so short it's annoying.
• Not enough choices. Two choices?! I'm not saying that there needs to be an unlimted amount of selections but there definitely needs to be more than two. The way it stands there isn't even room for a Yes, No, Maybe option!

If there’s a science to Dr. Seuss books for teaching children to read, my hypotheses would focus on the comparison and contrast of the words used in rhyming.

For example, from Green Eggs and Ham:

“I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere.”

The rhyme demonstrates visually and typographically, the difference between here, there and anywhere. It’s a simple way to soak up vocabulary in a fun and memorable way. 

HootSuite recently published an infographic titled A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter, which struck me both as creative marketing and an effective way to reach and teach the basics of Twitter. As the infographic says, citing the Lorax: It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.

 Here’s my call to action: If there’s someone you know that should be using Twitter that isn’t — send them a link to this infographic. They are not going to use it. Unless. Here’s the complete infographic:

Click to Enlarge

I just love HubSpot's ebooks! They short, easy reads that are always straight to the point with no extra funny business. And what's even better is that they're free! I just got a notification about their newest book which is about Twitter use for businesses.

Learn how to master the essentials to better share, engage, and market on Twitter with this ebook from HubSpot.

42% of Twitter users follow brands or companies -- is your business one of them?

Maintaining an effective Twitter presence can be a powerful part of your business' marketing strategy. To help businesses interested in mastering the basics of Twitter, we've put together a complete explanation of how to use Twitter for business.

Used successfully, Twitter can help you develop and promote your brand, interact with your fan base, monitor conversations about your company, promote thought leadership, and much more.

Download HubSpot's comprehensive ebook to learn, step-by-step, how to tackle Twitter as a business tool. Specifically, this guide will teach you:

• The basics, such as Twitter-specific vocabulary 
• 6 ways to set up and optimize your public profile 
• How to use Twitter for business through marketing

Click here to download the free ebook!

79% of companies believe events are an important form of marketing for their business. Attending events can be extremely beneficial to your company and brand -- but can also be overwhelming.

Determining a plan to get the most out of events you attend, before, during and afterwards, is critical in making the time and money spent on event tickets worth it. That's where Twitter can help.

HubSpot put together this ebook to help you get the most out of the events you attend with Twitter. After reading this 31-page ebook, you will be able to:

• Set goals that help you prepare for an event efficiently 
• Use Twitter to generate leads during event conversations and sessions 
• Start valuable conversations 
• Track your potential customers 
• Measure event success with calls-to-action

I absolutely love the HubSpot eBooks! I've posted about a few of them in the past. They're so incredibly easy to follow, a quick read, and always relevant to current trends... oh yeah, and they're free!

The recently published eBook boasts:

The biggest mistake marketers make with Twitter is not realizing its full potential as a way to bring in more revenue. In fact, 42% of companies have acquired a customer via Twitter. And now that Twitter's new mobile video app Vine has been added to the mix, there's even more to measure.

Yes, Twitter is a place for engagement with followers; but it’s also a channel for generating leads and driving new sales for your organization.

Our ebook, with a foreword by Laura Fitton, the author of Twitter for Dummies, explains how to use the social network to drive real business results. In this ebook, you will discover the different stages of optimizing your Twitter and Vine presence for attracting leads and customers.

More specifically, this 61-page ebook will teach you how to:

• Optimize your Twitter for brand awareness & search 
• Jump start your Twitter lead generation strategy 
• Incorporate Vine into your Twitter strategy 
• Measure the ROI of Twitter and Vine

It's that time of year again when everyone feels the need to make a list about things that happened over the previous year. Here are some of my favorite end of year lists:

• 2012.Twitter - A summary of 2012 on Twitter. Topics including: Golden Tweets, Pulse of the Planet, Only on Twitter, Trends, New Voices, Your Year on Twitter
• Google's Zeitgeist - 1.2 trillion searches, 146 languages. What did the world search for in 2012?
• Facebook Year in Review 2012 - A look back at the people, moments and things that created the most buzz in 2012 among the billion people around the world on Facebook.
• The 10 Most Overused LinkedIn Profile Buzzwords of 2012 - LinkedIn revealed its annual list of the 10 most-overused buzzwords job hunters use on the social network and "creative" was once again at the top of the list both globally and in the U.S.
• 20 Most Shared Ads of 2012 - Mashable's list of the 20 most shared advertisements

• 9 out of 10 companies mine online profiles before hiring
• 92% of employers check the applicants' LinkedIn profiles
• 66% of employers check the applicants' Facebook pages
• 53% check out candidates' Twitter profiles

Social influence metrics, such as Klout, are increasingly being used by employers as another way to gauge applicants. Do you closely monitor your Klout score? If not, maybe you should...

(Source: OnlineClasses.org)

From grades in college, to internships, to career advancement (even the presidency)--there's a good chance that it might all come down to your score and how you rank against others.

Has this made you think a little more about your online influence and reputation?

From time to time I like to give a shoutout to a resource that I found particularly helpful. This time I would like to recommend a free ebook from HubSpot called 55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content if you are in the market for some quick reading and some quick tips on visual social media marketing (because, of course, it is all the rage).

The books introduction states:

The times they are a-changin'. These famous words of Bob Dylan can easily be applied to the rapidly evolving character of social media. No doubt, social media is changing--it's rushing into its most visual stage. If you aren’t prepared for the visual content revolution, you may be left in the dust. That’s why the HubSpot marketing team compiled this list of 55 brands killing it with visual content on these top four visually-driven social networks. Use this for inspiration to launch your visual content strategy. 

Flip through our presentation to learn how you can use visual content on:

• Facebook 

• Pinterest 

• Twitter 

• Instagram

We never thought when we started this show that we would ever seriously cover Myspace. We figured that we might cover the official death of the network--if anything--but never its comeback! Recently Myspace unveiled a promo for the new Myspace. It's pretty awesome.

On this episode of Social Media Meltdown we discuss the dangers of mobile media... the literal dangers of using media while being mobile (i.e. while walking, while driving and while going about your daily life). What do you think? Is this all just being blown way out of proportion?


Click here for the show notes and to joint the conversation!

Twitter unveiled new profile pages today which features a larger image, separate from the profile picture, in which the user can customize to express themselves and what they're tweets are all about.

It looks a little something like this:


To change your cover photo:

Go to your Twitter settings
Click "Design" in the menu on the left-hand side

Then under "Customize Your Own" you will see where you can upload and edit your header image

Ta-Da! That's it!

What do you think about the header image? Does it seem a little too similar to the Facebook Cover Photo? What did you do creative with your header image (I have to be honest, I didn't take too much time when choosing mine)?

Share: Tweet 

Here's some quick tricks of the trade for getting retweeted on Twitter!

1. Ditch the egg! Your audience wants to feel connected with you on a personal level and put a name (Twitter handle) with a face. Make your avatar a picture of your smiling face, no one takes the default egg picture seriously!
2. Add a bio to your Twitter profile so, again, your audience can connect on a personal level.
3. Add a link to your Facebook, blog, website or any other online presence you have on the internet. This will successfully get you some cross-traffic.
4. Don't be a stalker. 
5. Be conversational.
6. Know your audience.
7. Know the lingo. Look up basic Twitter how-to guides to brush up on the language.
8. Know the tools. Once again, basic Twitter how-to guides will give you the run down.
9. Include links to useful resources.
10. Always shorten links by using a URL shortener like bit.ly.
11. Leave room for them to retweet by leaving at least 10 remaining characters.
12. Add variety to your tweets. Don't always tweet the same sources (there are other tech resources besides Mashable).
13. Add comments to things you are retweeting. Do you agree or disagree? Let your audience know.
14. Read content before posting. If you're tweeting a blog, read it first to make sure it fits with your subject.
15. Always give credit.
16. Be interesting.
17. Be yourself.
18. Inspire your audience.
19. Entertain your audience.
20. Educate our audience.
21. Provide value! Your audience always wants to know what's in it for them. How can they benefit by following you. What do you have to offer them?
22. Be persistent, not repetitive. If there's a point you want to get across, don't post the same exact thing over and over. Use your creativity to write different tweets.
23. Tone matters.
24. Have a personality. Even professional tweets can have life!
25. Don't just tweet about yourself.
26. Don't complain.
27. No profanity! Who wants to retweet profanity?
28. Be relevant! Old news never gets retweets.
29. Offer variety. Even if you tweet on one subject (Fashion) there's still a variety of topics (purses, shoes, color palettes, culture, etc).
30. Ask questions.
31. Share other people tweets by retweeting them. Nice tweeters will return the favor!
32. Use hashtags as subjects to increase your tweet's ability to get picked up in Twitter searches.
33. Ask for a retweet. There's no shame in asking!
34. Try tweeting at different times of the day to see what your audience responds to best.
35. Measure results.

Anything I missed?

Thanks to the powers of the internet and social media anyone can experience the Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week from anywhere in the world!


Starting today top designers from around the world will unveil their Fall 2012 Collections and, this year, it's not just for the fashion elite anymore. NYFW and it's featured designers are making it easier than ever to feel like part of the action and excitement.

This year you have a front row ticket to all the hottest catwalks!


Live Video



Now your computer screen is a portal to the hottest runways. YouTube has once again partnered with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and Maybelline to live stream more than 25 shows at youtube.com/liverunway. See full schedule below.

#TweetWalk on Twitter

Started by Burberry at the 2011 NYFW, #TweetWalk is the hashtag to follow on Twitter to see this year's hottest looks before they hit the runway. Seconds before a look headed down the runway, it was photographed and tweeted so all the Burberry fan could see it first!

At 3 p.m ET on Friday, Rebecca Minkoff plans to stream her entire show live. She also plans to debut pieces from her collection on Twitter a full 30 minutes before they appear on the runway. Additional backstage footage will appear on the designer’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, and the full show will stream live on YouTube at 3 p.m. ET on Friday.

At 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Tommy Hilfiger will stage a “Twitter Model Walk” at its men’s Fall 2012 show's shoe line. The company will release images of the shoes on Twitter as they hit the runway. Followers can enter for a chance to win a pair by retweeting an image with the hashtag #TommyRunwayShoes, or by filling out a form on Facebook, where the U.S. fashion label will also be livestreaming video footage of its show.

These won't be the only sneak peaks you'll find on Twitter this year. The whole internet will be aflutter with fashion news! For the whole inside scoop from designers, the media, and attendees follow the hashtags  #NYFW and #MBFW.

Tumblr

Get NYFW updates right on your Tumblr feed. For the third year in a row, Tumblr has sent fashion bloggers into the action to chronicle all the action.

Instagram

Do you see a trend yet? Following the #NYFW hashtag (again) on Instagram and it will get you backstage impromptu snapshots.

I think this should be about it!

As exciting as it is that we can all be involved in the action, it has been argued by many that the mass availability of NYFW has transformed the purpose of the event all together. What was once an invite-only event for the fashion elite is now a global, consumer-facing experience.

Do you think the mainstreaming of New York Fashion Week will cause high-end designers to loose their luster?

Anyone who is looking to start a career (or move on in their career) right now knows that the market is still tough. There are an increasing number of people looking for jobs, but open positions are far and wide. This means employers have the pick of the litter when filling positions!

So how do you get a leg up on your competition?
That's right! Using social media platforms you can gain and edge over other job seekers in your field.

My first job at the company I work for now as a New Media Specialist was as a Social Recruiter. It was my job to go online, meet and network with engineers and sell the company to them. This aggressive form of recruiting is highly successful and is gaining mass popularity around the world.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "But social media doesn't apply to my field." Yes it does. Welcome to the 21st century! Social media is everywhere and it isn't going away. So get with it and use it to better your career!

I'll start with the best and most important social media tool for job hunting:

LinkedIn is one of the easiest and most professional ways of finding a job and being found by a recruiter. LinkedIn allows you to create an online resume that is searchable by the 135 Million+ members. Forty-one percent of LinkedIn users are utilizing the site for social recruiting (infographic). This is not a social network for personal information--only job and education history. You can then network with old and current coworkers on a professional level.

Completing your resume profile with as much detail as possible is the most important to be recruiting accurately. Recruiters can search the LinkedIn database by people with a specific job title, (former) employer, college or university, skills, certification, years of experience, location, and anything else you provide in the given spaces.

Once a recruiter has found your profile and is interested in you, they have the ability to send you a message which lets you know you have the expertise they are looking for and they will also provide you with a link to apply for the specific position online. It's the new way to cold call.

Through LinkedIn you can also take a more aggressive approach by looking for the jobs yourself instead of waiting for someone to find you. You can do this one of three ways.

Companies can create profile pages on LinkedIn. Company profile pages allow you to view a company overview, all LinkedIn users who are employed at said company, the company's products or services, and their open employment positions. If you have a specific company in mind that you would like to work at, it would be a good idea to "Follow" that company and when and employment opportunity is posted it will show up on your LinkedIn homepage.


LinkedIn also offers a comprehensive job search tool where you can enter in any job title imaginable from engineers to zoo keepers and from electricians to CEOs. Once you enter a job title into the search, you can then refine your search by relationship (whether anyone you've networked with on LI works there or has any connection there), company, location, date job was posted, salary, job function, industry, and experience level.

By using these refining tools you will save a lot of time during your job search by not having to view postings that do not apply to you. Once you find a posting you like, follow the directions listed to apply! So easy. No more jumping from site to site looking for job postings!

Lastly, using LinkedIn's group search. You can find groups of like-minded professionals who are open with sharing job openings, career advice, and networking opportunities through a message board style of communication. For example while searching for "clown" groups, the results provided me with 20 groups dedicated to clowning. Now if I wanted to be more specific, I could have tried "Michigan clowns" to see if something more local was available. Many established organizations have LI groups, like The Public Relations Society of America: Detroit (PRSSA-Detroit) in which you can join. By joining groups associated with your area or field you will increase your reputation in the industry and get your name out there for recruiters who monitor group activity looking for recruits!

Twitter is not the best way of finding and applying for jobs, but there are tools out there that make it possible. Even if they aren't the most effective, Twitter doesn't take long and every little effort counts!

First off, make your Twitter profile Employer Friendly. Delete any old tweets with any unsavory content that might be a turn off for perspective employers. Once you begin applying for jobs using Twitter, your profile will be their first impression of you. Even though deleting your tweets does not erase them forever (the internet is permanent; it does not forget), employers won't see them front in center during a casual search.

It would also be a good idea to put a link to your online CV or resume, like your LinkedIn profile, in your Twitter bio to ensure it gets maximum exposure (use a URL shortener like bit.ly to make sure it fits).

Besides using Twitter's standard search bar to find postings, follow various job posting Twitter accounts. Mashable has put together this great list of accounts to follow:

By field

By job type

By region

General

You can also follow the hashtag #TweetMyJobs. Or you can even use a third-party website like TwitJobSearch, which will help you search Twitter's database for job postings.

Your Klout score, the measurement of your influence based on your ability to drive action on social networks, is a key indicator of your knowledge base and you ability to create content and engage with others online. Klout measures how many people you influence (true reach), how much you influence them based on engagement (amplification), and your influence on your network (network impact). Klout analyzes every piece of social media content--every tweet and Facebook post--to assign every SM user topics and levels of influence.

I, for example, tweet a lot about digital technology, the area in which I live, and advertising so Klout has determined I have a Klout Score of 49 and I am influential about Advertising, Detroit and Social Media.

Your Klout Score is a number between 1 and 100. People who have concise, highly-focused, and knowledgeable content subjects usually range over 40. Klout founder and CEO, Joe Fernandez, considers the average score to be about 20 and a score above 30 to be reputable and a score above 50 to be elite. Once you are a high influencer, people can use Klout to search for knowledgeable personalities on any subject like social media or pottery or speed walking. Just another way for people to find you in the great Social Media Ocean.

In the world of job hunting, Klout can play a pivotal role in employers choosing an applicant. Klout's Garth Holsinger explains:



Stay tuned for my upcoming article about how to raise your Klout score!


By using all of these social media tactics, you are creating a funnel that leads directly to you. You start off creating a brand for yourself that appeals to employers then create all of these paths that catch their interest, via social media, that lead back to you.

Ultimately, the more you put yourself out there the more changes you have of getting their attention.

In these days of competitive job searching you can no longer sit back and wait, you have to actively pursue a large amount of potential leads and always putting your best foot forward.

This morning I was contacted via tweet by The Detroit Free Press (@freep) to receive permission to use a photo I tweeted of one of the many storms that has ripped through Metro Detroit over the last two days.

I was, of course, flattered and I said yes. They used to photo to accompany a story about the pending flood warnings we are under.

The picture and headline graced the front page of Freep.com for most of the morning.  Below is a screencap of the article itself.

The picture's caption reads: "Roads in Canton Township are awash from drenching rains. / Photo by Twitter user @katelynshelby"

My mother now thinks I'm famous.

So over the last few hours, I've been trying to find something that can fill the void left in the absence of Netflix Streaming...

1. Refresh Netflix.com. I tried this a few hundred times over the course of an hour and was unsuccessful at changing its fate.
2. Pretend you don't care. Watch something else. After becoming so accustomed to Netflix Life, I wasn't too sure what cable programming had to offer these days. Needless to say, everything sucks and Glee was a rerun. But I was able to kill 20 minutes looking for my TV remote.
3. Browse Tumblr. This tactic can keep you busy for a long time but just when you're incredibly entertained by memes, the Tumbeasts will attack... then you will be lonely once again.
4. Go outside and see the light of day. Too bad it's nighttime other wise this would have been a viable option.
5. Do something productive. Do your homework or some laundry. Clean your house. Cook dinner. Pay your bills. However, no matter how much you get done it will seem insignificant compared to TV show marathon you previously had planned.

My podcast, Girly Nerdy Goodness, has officially kicked off its second season on air!

The GNG girls are back and they're starting off Season 2 with a bang!  The season's first episode starts off with a little prank involving aliens and continues on to some other crazy shenanigans on one of our favorite continents.  We have a whole lot of new features and fun coming this season so you better tune in!

Follow us on Twitter:  @GNGshow

Friend us on Facebook:  Girly Nerdy Goodness

(via girlynerdygoodness.com)

With a little encouragement from the guys at Just Cool Enough, I have reformatted my previous segment, "Internet Find" on Girly Nerdy Goodness, into a new segment that chronicles my relationships with social networking and with the internet as a whole!