More impressive confirmations

Recently, the good people at Netprospex issued a Social Media Report, offering a comprehensive look at the business usage of social media in the U.S. and in a wide variety of fields.

The report ranks cities in the U.S. where businesses are most active on Twitter - here's a look at their methodology:

We first grouped business people into geographic areas based on the locations of their companies. We then calculated a Twitter Score based on the average number of Twitter accounts, tweets, number of followers, and number of users following.

A high twitter score means there is a large percentage of business people within that city using Twitter.

I am very proud to report that Wilmington, Delaware is #10 on that list!

Click here to check out the full report.

Things I've learned over 10,000 tweets

As I write this, I have posted 9,967 "tweets" or messages on twitter.

I've been on Twitter since January of 2009 (thanks to Whitney Hoffman!) - and some of you are reading this thinking, "yea, I hit 10,000 tweets ages ago" (I'm looking at you, Maya) and others are thinking, "Wow, don't you have a life?" (you know who you are).

As I cross this little milestone, I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the lessons I've learned so far in the twitterverse.

• Most people really do want to help others
• Most people are kind, generous, and care about their community
• You Can't Fake The Funk!
• Transparency can be a truly beautiful and good thing
• Most politicians, corporate drones, and bureaucrats have an intense fear of social media
• The exceptions to the point above are the kinds of people I really want running things
• I can learn more about breaking news from 5 minutes on twitter than 30 minutes of TV News
• Almost every experience is better when sharing it with friends
• I am unbelievably fortunate to have gotten to know SO MANY wonderful people and I am so very grateful to have all of you in my life!

These are just some thoughts off the top of my head - care to share anything you've learned?

General Information about why the social part is important

Science continues to show us how inter-connected we are naturally, and how important it can be for us to approach this with some intentionality.

Know this, I am incredibly proud of the patch we're creating here in Delaware in this social media quilt.

Just interesting statistics (a fairly narcissistic post)

One of the amazing things about this whole interwebs thing is how measurable everything is - I have a theory that these measurement tools are causing some sleepless nights for "traditional" marketing types. It used to be easy, tell someone that the billboard will mean 10 gazillion "impressions" - mix that with the television ad, the radio ad, and the full page newspaper ad and you'll have 230 mega-gajillion impressions!

NOTE: I am a firm believer in the above mentioned forms of advertising, and I have several friends in the advertising field - these communication tools are effective and useful - I just think some have taken advantage of the fact that you can't *really* measure how many people are "impressed" with these "impressions."

So, here's the thing - you can actually track how effective your message is here - you know how many people are watching your Youtube videos - or visiting your blog - and even how many people are clicking on the links you post on twitter.

While I do an occasional check to see how many people are clicking on the links I include on twitter, I'm normally just looking at a week's worth of traffic and, until now, haven't really stepped back to get a larger perspective, like this:

OK, so this counts the number of links I provided that were clicked on by others.

NOTE: This DOES NOT track links I've retweeted from others - ONLY those tweets that I originated with links shortened through Hootsuite.

So, since the beginning of this year, 4,869 people have clicked on a link I've offered up into the twittersphere - to be honest, I have no idea how that compares with others, all I know is that it indicates that others are engaging with me at some level, and for that I am both appreciative and humbled.

Now, a couple of quick observations about the most popular messages:

• The most popular topic was the social media wedding (thank you, Chris and Elizabeth, for making this so much fun!) - those were messages #3, #6, and #10 on the list for a grand total of 197 clicks
• It looks like people like fun - the most popular message was about a bunch of characters walking around the University of Delaware
• People like Community - #2 on the list was a link to the Community Shoe Drive at BellaVista in Pike Creek, #4 was about the Greater Newark Network meeting, and #5 and #7 are all about getting the word out about how great Delaware is.

Another observation - until I looked at this chart, I honestly had no idea how many people had been clicking on these links to get information. Chances are, you don't know the kind of impact you're having - if you're active in the Delaware Social Media Community, please keep it up - if you are not yet engaging, please do, you'll never know how many people you will inform, encourage, entertain, and engage with!

A Huge Success Story!

This is exciting!

The Food Bank of Delaware has been awarded $10,000 to fund their backpack program:

The Backpack Program reduces hunger and improves the quality of life by providing nutritious foods and nutritional education while school is not in session. The Food Bank of Delaware works to identify children at risk of malnutrition to provide them with backpacks filled with nutritious meals and snacks that they take home on weekends. This grant will provide 51 children with meals for an entire program year. The food bank currently serves 46 school sites, however, there are an additional 35 school sites we have yet to reach with nutritious meals on the weekends and holidays. This grant will help us expand our Backpack Program to help feed children at risk of hunger in the state of Delaware.

How did this happen?

I'm glad you asked!

Kim Kostes at the Food Bank of Delaware entered the Good Idea Contest sponsored by Shoprite and Pepsi - Food Bank of DE and 14 other organizations posted ideas and gathered votes - the top five organizations to receive votes between July 8 and August 16 are awarded $10,000 each to fund their ideas.

Think about this for a minute - the other 14 organizations are from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and other states in the mid-Atlantic and New England areas - based on population, it's safe to say Delaware is the underdog.

It seems like every week I have the same conversation with businesses, non-profits, and others who want to know why they should get involved with Social Media - hopefully this will demonstrate just some of the value.

Congratulations to Kim and everyone at the Food Bank of Delaware - and Huge Thanks to Everyone who voted, posted on facebook, retweeted on twitter and helped make this possible!

How to join the Delaware Twitter Community - super easy edition

OK, I'm working with a lot of people who are starting to see the benefits of getting on Twitter and joining in the Delaware Twitter community. Once people get in, they realize how helpful, useful, encouraging, informative, and great this community is - it's just the joining part that seems to be a small hurdle.

SO, Here's a couple of videos that do a great job of walking you through the basics of explaining what Twitter is and how to get started:





So, go to Twitter.com and set up your account.

Now that your account is set up, start following Delaware people - here's a couple of lists to check out:

- Delaware Twibe
- WeFollow list for Delaware
- TwitterGrader list for Delaware

By now, you should be following at least 100 people.

OK, now start using #netde with any posts that have to do with Delaware - and please retweet messages from others who are using #netde (you can click here to see the kinds of conversations going on with the #netde hashtag right now).

Here's some more resources to check out (I HIGHLY recommend subscribing to these feeds):

- Phil Woods' Digital Marketing
- Chris Brogan's best Twitter Advice

DO NOT become overwhelmed - this really is easy and the results will blow you away! - oh, and be sure to follow me on twitter - @kengrantde

Videos from Ignite Dover

***UPDATE***
There are MUCH Better videos posted at the IgniteDover site - click here to see them!

July 14, 2010 - the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts in Dover - John McKown and his crew held Ignite Dover #1 - and is was incredible!

I took the liberty of recording everything on the Flip - here's the videos: