Are you a bone marrow donor?  Have you read the post about my cousin Katie?  If not, please click here to read it now.

I spend a lot of time focusing on the people who follow me on Twitter.  They’ve given me the gift of their attention, so it would be disrespectful to do otherwise.

Everyday, at least once, I peruse my new followers to see who they are, and to engage a bit with each of them.  Below are a few observations about that, and some tips on what might cause someone like me to engage more with someone like you.

1.  Twitter is social which by definition means it’s about human interaction.  If you don’t look like a human, it’s unlikely I’m going to feel compelled to interact with you.

• Your avatar should be a picture of YOU.  Not your company icon or some random photo.
• Preferably, your Twitter username should be YOUR name, or a nickname, as opposed to your company name or something generic.
• At least ONE of these these things need to be about YOU.  Let me show you some examples:

GOOD:

GOOD:

GOOD:

BAD:

From these, I know at least one thing personal about @micah, @davemcclure and @pistachio.  But, I’m not sure who this person @breakingnoose is, so as a result I’m not really inclined to try to engage with them.

2.  Along those lines, let’s talk about your bio:

• Use your real name, or at least pseudonym.  If you don’t want everyone to know you’re Samuel Clemens, then go by Mark Twain.  But, remember, Mark Twain was Mark Twain to everyone…he was the person, just using a different name.
• This is especially important if your Twitter username isn’t your name, or at least a human name.  For example, @pistachio puts her real name in her bio.
• In your bio, you MUST have a link to a web page. Ideally, it would be a web page about you–a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Profile, etc.  A company is okay too…just something that is going to tell me something more about you.  If there is no link, then my engag-o-meter sinks quickly.
• As far as your actual bio text goes, I don’t pay that close of attention, although I prefer a sentence as oppose to a listing of buzzwords.  “Social media marketing productivity coach guru ninja rockstar,” is pretty bogus and you know it too.  Be authentic.

GOOD:

BAD:

3.  Say something.  I’m more inclined to respond to someone who tweets their thoughts as opposed to simply retweets what other people say.  This is not a strict rule.  Retweeting does give me some insight into who you respect and what thoughts you value.  Same goes for people who tweet quotes and links.  However, just like in real life, people who don’t occasionally have an original thought aren’t very interesting.  Again, make it personal and human.

4.  By looking at a) one page of tweets, b) your bio, and c) your background image I can tell if you use Twitter to engage with others or simply to promote yourself.  I’ve written before how the fact that Twitter is yet another broadcast medium isn’t very interesting to me.  What makes Twitter transformational is the two-way conversation that it enables, and I find people who use it that way interesting.

5.  Speaking of background images, to me this is one of the easiest ways to tell if you’re a self-promoter.  If you have spent a lot of time making a beautiful background that promotes all your virtues then I feel like you’re in it more for you and less for the community.

6.  Tweet reguarly.  If you only tweet once ever few weeks or months, that tells me you’re not really engaged with the community.  Now, that’s completely fair because you may be a listener.  But, if you are only a listener, then you’re also a lurker and that’s sort of creepy.  To a degree, you have to be part of the conversation.

7.  Unlock your profile.  If your tweets are protected, it’s really hard to engage with you.  If you link your bio to a web page about you, then it gets easier, but lots of times people who protect their tweets don’t do that.  That just sends me a message that says, “I’m not interested in letting you know me,” which is fine, but understand the implications of that.

Are any of these hard-and-fast rules?  No.  But, as I participate in the community, these are things that I’ve noticed influence whether or not I engage with you.

If I were an author, I’m not sure I would like this because it eliminates the viral nature of books.  As an author, or any content creator, there is a lot of value in virality.  To simply have your name “out there” as a meme in the a community, hive or culture has a lot of value–as part of the conversation at a cocktail party, so to speak.

Think of this case: have you ever been lent a book that you enjoyed reading, then suggested to someone else that they read the book?  I have.  In other words, I became an evangelist for the author.  I think this is worth as much, if not more, than few dollars they would have earned from the book.

Or, what about books checked out from the library?

And, second-hand bookstores.  In a pure sense, the author not the seller, should be earning the dollars when a book is resold.  However, Mr. Market factors that loss into the original price of the book.  In other words, pricing has reached an equilibrium taking into account the viral benefits of the secondary market.

There are lots of technical ways Kindle could solve this problem, but let me suggest just one.  It’s not the best solution, but it’s easy: for each Kindle book that I buy and download I get to “share it” with exactly one other person.

From an implementation point of view, the act of “sharing” is simply by giving a unique promo code to a friend.  The code can be used only once and only for a specific book.  Online promo codes are well established, so this shouldn’t be hard.  And, there are many easy ways that they could be shared from device-to-device, by e-mail, etc.

Anyhow, all I’m saying is that there’s a lot of value to viralty.  This about it this way: in a perfect world, content creators would get paid each time their work is used.  However, just because they’re not getting paid cash doesn’t mean they’re not getting value from their work.

It is not the good kind of cancer, if such a thing exists.  It’s the bad kind where your chances are grim.  A year ago she underwent treatment, they gave it some awfully low percentage chance, but luckly it went into remission.  Sadly, less than a year later, it has returned.

Long-story short: Kate needs to find a bone marrow donor.  There is a bone marrow donor registry at Marrow.org, but of the 12 million people currently on the registry not a single person is a match to Katie.

We are tying to round up as many people as possible to register. All you need to do to register is go to http://www.marrow.org.

Do it now, not in 5 minutes, not tonight, not this weekend, but now.  Every day counts and Katie’s life depends on a kind and generous friend or stranger who is willing to make a difference.

You can read more about Katie’s story here: http://www.kancerclub.com

Libraries have come to be viewed as an indispensable civic institution, but it hasn’t always been that way.  The first libraries were sort of like clubs: books were expensive and hard to come by, so people who had them would pool them together and share.  As I recall, Benjamin Franklin started the first library in the British Colonies…it was this type of library.

I mentioned this situation on the horizon to my grandmother who is a great lover of books.  She told me that she remembers “lending libraries” when she was growing up (in the teens, twenties and thirties).  They were sort of like a video rental shop–you’d get a book and pay by the day.  “A nickel a day,” she said.

In the future, when all books a digital, how will we check a book out from the library?  What does that mean for our society?  I have no idea, but it’s a fascinating question.

Nevertheless, I was away last week, so I took the opportunity to download a book to the iPhone Kindle reader and give it a real try.  Honestly, it was surreal…soooooo many thoughts swirled through my head as I read the book.

The first thing was that it felt weird to pay $12.99 for something that effectively cost zero to produce.  Well, I suppose there were a lot of computers involved to produce it, but the marginal cost of each unit is zero (or very, very close to it).

After I thought about it for awhile I realized that how I felt was a reflection of the new relationship I was having with the “book”.  I wasn’t paying $12.99 for the bits that I downloaded from Amazon: I was paying the author for his work!

Think about that.  It’s a fundamental shift in consumer thinking…where we go from buying an object–a book or compact disc–to actually just buying the content.   In the past, I’ve always considered buying media as a function of the cost to produce and deliver it, but that is no longer the case.  My sense (although I have no hard data on this) is that consumer attitudes on this will adapt over time, just like mine did, and we’ll see a reduction in piracy as consumers come to terms with paying for content, not product.

That being said, the Kindle is one model of this new consumption framework–paying a fixed price to the content creator.  Another model that comes to mind is what Radiohead did with In Rainbows: they gave it away for free and said pay what you feel it’s worth.  Both models are more pure than the previous model of buying an object, and there other other models too–like Rhapsody or Netflix.  I couldn’t tell you which is the best, but I’m sure Mr. Market will figure it out.

Anyhow, so many more thoughts on the Kindle…expect another post tomorrow.

Let me tell you why: two weeks ago I bought a Verizon mobile Internet card: $59.99/month with $0.05/MB overage charges.  However, when I logged in the device gave a warning that there is a $0.25 overage charge.  Yikes, big difference.

Headed over to Verizon.com and tried to login to “My Verizon” to check my plan.  Turns out I’ve already been registered–must have done that when I bought the device, but forgot.  So, I need to reset my password.  No problem.

Oh, wait: the way this is done by is by sending a text message to the device.  Well, my device is a little USB thumb-card type of thing…no way to receive text messages.

So, I call Verizon customer service.  First, I explain to the customer service agent my 5-vs-25 cent problem, but she really doesn’t have an answer.  Nor does she know if anybody there has the answer.  Hmmm.   So, I sort of gave up.  Then move on to explaining my login problem to My Verizon.

Oh, not a problem, she says: the software that runs your card has a text message inbox, and that’s how you can get the message.  But, my version of the software doesn’t seem to have the inbox.  Okay, let’s transfer you to tech support…

…oooooohhhh, you’re running a Mac.  The software on a Mac doesn’t have the inbox.

Now, what the very kind woman on the phone is going to do is disconnect my device from my account.  Then, hook her phone up to my account, send herself the text message, and reset my password for me.  Finally, she’ll hook my device back up to my account.

Not a bad plan, a kluge, but a plan.  From this point, it takes about 30 minutes because there are various setbacks to the plan.  Nevertheless, it works, I thank the agent, and like all helpful agents, she asks, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”  As a matter of fact, yes: the whole reason I want to get into My Verizon is because of this 5-vs-25 cent problem…can you help me with that?

Well, see, if you look carefully you’ll see that it says “$0.25/minute” and what that really means is that if you’re using voice services on your plan that would be the overage.  But, of course, since your device doesn’t do voice, that’s irrelevant.  If you look over here, you’ll see where it says “$0.05/MB” which is what applies to data.  Oooohhhh…well, thankyouverymuch for explaining…makes perfect sense.

And, with no further adieu, let me recount the very simple ways Verizon could have prevented wasting roughly 90 minutes of my life, roughly in order of sequence:

1. If your device can’t do voice, they could suppress the voice overage charge warning. [Relatively simple software design problem.]
2. If they must have the warning, then they should clearly identify the difference between voice and data overages. [Very simple software design problem.]
3. The first customer service agent could have known the answer to my question.  [Training problem...training can be tricky, so they get a break here.]
4. The first customer service agent could have transferred me to a more knowledgeable agent when she didn’t know the answer.  [Business process problem.]
5. The web page where you reset your password could have said that Internet devices can receive text messages, and have included an explanation of how to receive them.  [Extremely simple software design problem.]
6. Unless you’re on a Mac, in which case you’ll need to call Verizon for 1 hour and 8 minutes.  [Very, very lame software design problem, and one that is not terribly hard to fix.  If the Windows software can do it, then so can the Mac...it's just development time.]
7. In My Verizon, like #1, if I don’t have voice services then don’t show the voice overage rates. [Relatively simple software design problem.]
8. In My Verizon, like #2, if you must show the rates, then clearly identify the differences. [Very simple software design problem.]

Long story short: it’s not hard to have a good user experience.  There are 8 places where for a relatively low cost the UX could have been improved.

Over the weekend, poked my head in to an art gallery.  Inexpensive art ranging in prices from $25-250.  Art that I liked and would have hung on my wall.

Was the only person in the gallery for between 7-10 minutes.  Sales person at the desk must have known I was there because the there was an auto-doorbell when someone entered.  I dropped something in the doorway, so I came in and out twice.  Sales person didn’t say a peep…didn’t acknowledge my existence…didn’t ask if I wanted to buy something…and I left without any engagement when just saying “hello” would have been so easy.

Pro Tip: if you have a product that you’re trying to sell, the very easiest way to increase your sales conversion rate is to ask your potential customers if they would like to make a purchase.  There’s a reason the Gap and Walmart have greeters…it’s because they work and they pay for themselves dozens of times over.  The same applies to the web: if you’re selling something, make sure you’re asking your customers if they want to buy it.

I Know Another Secret…How to Sell Your Service:

On Saturday, I needed to send something overnight for Monday arrival.  The reason is unimportant.  I called information to get the phone number of my local FedEx location because I needed to know by what time I needed to drop off my letter.  That location is probably 4 miles from my house.

I called information, got the number for my local location, but was forwarded to the general all-in-one FedEx automated phone system.  Oy!  Had to go through a whole ton of prompts to find my location again, but gave up after a few minutes because I couldn’t find the exact one.

Turned on the computer, go to FedEx.com, use the store locator…same problem, but ultimately I find the store…doesn’t seem to have the info I need.  Or, at least, it’s not obvious.

So, I go to Google, do some Googling, find the actual local phone number.  More prompts, but finally I get to “Press 9 to speak to a store representative.”

“Hi, FedEx Office, this is Kevin, how may I help you?”  I proceed to to have a 45-60 second conversation with Kevin who tells me that I need to get my letter there by 4pm.  Problem solved, thank you Kevin.

Pro Tip: Good customer service and good customer experience starts with treating your customers like humans when they’re in the information gathering phase of deciding whether or not to use your service.  Maybe FedEx saved a few dollars by having a giant automated phone system, but they wasted a ton of my time.  In other words, they reduced their cost, but not the actual cost of their service…my total cost was the same.  To boot, if I hadn’t been a creative Googler I probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out if their service solved my problem.  Same goes on the web: design your web site for humans and it’s much more likely they’re going to buy your service.