I know that a plugin is available for WordPress.com sites, but I couldn’t find one for self-hosted WordPress.  I’m working on uploading our plugin to the WordPress.org repository — in the meantime you can download it here: Modern Media Tweet Shortcode. Update: we’ve uploaded it to the WordPress plugins site. Please download it there.

Instructions are below. Let me know @chriscarson if you like it.  Enjoy!

Installing the WordPress plugin

1. Download and unzip the files.
2. Upload the ModernMediaTweetShortcode modern-media-tweet-shortcode folder to your site’s wp-content/plugins directory.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Go to the plugin’s settings page: Settings > Embedded Tweets. You may have to check off an option to include a javascript from Twitter. There are a couple of other fun options, like Chinese…

Embedding a Tweet — New Interface

These instructions are for the new web interface Twitter rolled out recently.  If you still have the old interface, scroll down.

From the timeline, click “Open” to show more options.

Click “Details” to go to the Tweet’s unique URL.

Click “Embed This Tweet”…

Click the “Shortcode” tab and copy the URL.

Edit your post.  Paste in the shortcode. It should look something  like this:

[tweet https://twitter.com/OnionSports/status/145262716104351747]

Click save and view the post.  Your embedded tweet should show up nicely:

Embedding a Tweet — Old Interface

If you don’t have the new interface yet (I don’t either — I had to hack a colleague’s account to take the screenshots above,)  here’s how you get the unique Tweet URL.

Click on the “sent” link from your timeline…

Copy the URL of the tweet…

You’ll have to type in the shortcode yourself.  The format is…

[tweet theURLyouCopiedHere]

Back in 2008, the Nuyorican’s only advertising was though print ads and free weeklies, and had no measurable impact.  Losing thousands in potential revenue per year, the Cafe had no online presence, and didn’t even know if their events were showing up online or in the press.

Fast forward to 2011: with an up-to-date website, constantly updated Facebook page with nearly 20,000 fans and Twitter account with over 2,300 followers, the Nuyorican is harnessing digital and social media effectively.  Via these channels, the Nuyorican posts daily updates, discount offers, cross-promotions, contests, and more.  They aim to engage their online audience at least once a day with a ‘morsel’ of information, succinct and interesting messages that have value.  Having re-packaged itself as a “cutting edge” arts venue, it has connected with a tech-savvy fan base and has ‘busloads’ of people coming in for shows.

Along with the essentials (website, Facebook and Twitter), the Nuyorican also:

• customized their Google Places page (and still update it regularly)
• created Google alerts
• opened accounts with Google Adwords
• publicized their social networking accounts via calendars
• kept sending email blasts for older customers
• put Facebook and Twitter accounts on everything they produced

The Nuyorican’s ratio of online fans to operating expense is excellent in comparison to other nonprofit competitors in NYC, including the New York City Opera, Kennedy Center, and the 92nd Street Y.

Successes for the Nuyorican following their ‘online overhaul’ include:

• growing online ticket sales by 30%, and web traffic by 40%
• for social media ‘hyped’ events, sales grew 50%
• doubled their number of weekly events
• more than doubled annual revenues
• cut their advertising budget while boosting public profile
• using feedback from social networking to create new programs and more effectively target audiences
• reimagined the Cafe’s brand: from edgy but low-tech to cutting-edge and tech-savvy

See the full slide presentation here:

Watch:

Want to see more of Laura’s social media business tips?  Don’t miss her Twitter for Business pre-conference keynote at Realtime NY on June 6!

1. Accessibility: PR Newswire uses Twitter to make itself more accessible to its global client base.  Harres and her team funnel messages and inquiries to the right team member–sales, customer service, tech support–for fast response.
2. Branding:  Harres explains that “being the voice behind the brand” is a great responsibility, since she and her team are speaking for everyone at the company and want to make sure that how they represent the brand would make the entire team proud.

The real learning in this interview is when Harres shares her strategy for managing time and responsibility among the 4-member team.  By having each team member focus on a different “content beat,” the team naturally focuses on various audience segments.  Watch as Harres discusses how the team uses content to drive its targeting strategy:

Check out more Realtime Report videos from our events on our YouTube channel.

In fact, their production director, Reggie Rios (@riosreggie), emailed me a few days ago to say that they especially like the checklists we had at the end of the deck.  As Reggie said, “If you follow it you see results.”

We’ve posted the checklists up on our brand new Slideshare account* and are sharing them here.  Feel free to use them, suggest improvements, and share them with any Twitter newbies in your life!

*No, Slideshare doesn’t let you change your user name, so we had to create a new account as part of our rebranding… so while you’re add it, please follow our new Slideshare account, too!

To make sure that as many people as possible hear about TWTRCON SF before the early bird rates expire at the end of the week, we are asking you to help us tweet about the event.  To thank you, one tweet sent on Tuesday 9/21 with the phrase “#TWTRCON Tuesday” will be randomly selected to win a free pass to TWTRCON SF.

Here are the details:

1. Send one or many tweets with the phrase “#TWTRCON Tuesday” anytime on Tuesday, Sept 21 (we’ll use midnight, Pacific Time, as the cut-off).  Some examples:

#TWTRCON Tuesday: RT to save & maybe win a free pass to TWTRCON SF | Nov 18 | Business in Real Time. Details: http://bit.ly/cf04Vu

Join me at TWTRCON SF | Nov 18 | Business in Real Time – early bird rates expire this week! Details: http://bit.ly/cf04Vu #TWTRCON Tuesday

2. On Wednesday morning, we will randomly select one tweet from among all of the eligible ones sent as the winning tweet.   Note that sending multiple tweets improves your chances of being chosen.  (But it may also result in people un-following you if they think you are spamming them, so don’t go too crazy!)

3. We will notify the sender of the winning tweet via @ message by noon Pacific time on Wednesday the 21st.  We’ll also try to contact them via DM if they are following @TWTRCON.  The winner will receive a free pass to TWTRCON SF, a $595 vlaue.  If you win, you can use the pass for yourself or give it to a friend or colleague.

That’s it!  Have fun playing, and thanks for helping us get the word out!

P.S. Don’t forget to register yourself by the end of 9/24!

Agencies and agency executives who were smart enough to find the JetBlue marketer on Twitter will likely earn some points in the pitch process. The airline is currently in the midst of a search for a new agency after splitting with WPP shop JWT late last year.As of now, agencies following Mr. St. George, who uses the handle @martysg, include Mullen and New York-based Ludvik & Partners.

JetBlue’s marketing strategy has relied heavily on the web and social media in the past few years. The airline has been known as a progressive marketer and made Ad Age’s America’s Hottest Brands list in 2009. The airline has 1.6 million followers on Twitter and also supports a separate handle for deals. Advertising Age has the full story here.

Whole Foods uses Twitter primarily as a customer service tool. Erwin says Whole Foods does promote its blog content and may mention, “We’re having specials for the holidays,” and that sort of thing. But its number-one focus on Twitter is customer service.

Whole Foods Market, the leading natural and organic food store in the world with nearly 300 locations in North America and the United Kingdom, is the most popular retailer on Twitter and is a leading example of Twitter’s power to build millions of relationships a single customer at a time. Michael Stelzner, executive editor of Social Media Examiner, recently conducted a long interview with Marla Erwin and posted excerpts on the Social Media Examiner website.  

While the company is proud to say it has served over 12 million users since its creation in 1998, it is more excited about the much smaller number of social media followers continuing to grow both on its corporate account (@DynInc) and its newly launched support account, the DynDNS Ninja Squad (@DynDNS). “Many companies get on social media sites such as Twitter and wonder why they don’t see a return. What we have learned is that if you give value you will get value. We talk a lot about transparency with everything we do and social media has been the best way to show our users that we really mean it,” said Kyle York, VP of Sales and Marketing at Dyn. “We have also differentiated ourselves by making contact with companies we follow and find valuable ourselves.”

For example, Dyn actually boasts @Twitter as one of their clients, reaching out to them along with @Zappos, @Hubspot and @SimpleGeoInc, simply because they share an appreciation for what they do.

Thousands of IBMers are the voice of the company. As it turns out, its decentralized social media approach is another milestone in the company’s history—driving unprecedented collaboration and innovation. IBM lets employees talk—to each other and the public—without intervention. With a culture as diverse and distributed as IBM’s, getting employees to collaborate and share makes good business sense.

IBM does have social media guidelines. The employee-created guidelines basically state that IBMers are individually responsible for what they create and prohibit releasing proprietary information. But the document lacks any mention of brand messages or values. Nor does IBM corporate regulate employee social media activity. Only three people hold social media roles at the corporate level, and oversight isn’t part of their jobs.

“We don’t police. The community’s largely self-regulating, and so there hasn’t really been a need to have someone go about and circuit these boards and blogs,” Christensen said. “Employees sort of do that themselves… And that’s worked wonderfully well.”