Twitter for business#twitterworkshopBy Andy & Sara Headworth

Today’s WorkshopWhat is Twitter? Why Twitter has become so important so quicklyWhy your business needs to take noteHow to get startedWhich Twitter tools and applications you should useReal life example with someone in this room……..but who?

What is Twitter?Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.

Twitter for business is not about…… sharing what you had for lunch today wasting your time about following what all the celebrities are doing each day tweeting the daily news feed from your relevant industry tweeting endless “buy my product/service” linksTwitter for business is about…….building your brand developing your business network gaining new knowledge listening to your customers engaging

sharing what you had for lunch today

wasting your time

about following what all the celebrities are doing each day

tweeting the daily news feed from your relevant industry

tweeting endless “buy my product/service” links

building your brand

developing your business network

gaining new knowledge

listening to your customers

engaging

Why Twitter has become so important so quickly7 Million users 6,000 SME’s using every day in UK 47% 18-34 age group 31% 35-49 age group 21% 50plus age group 40% US vs60% International

7 Million users

6,000 SME’s using every day in UK

47% 18-34 age group

31% 35-49 age group

21% 50plus age group

40% US vs60% International

Twitter reached 23 million unique users in Juneaccording to Compete, which was a 16 percent growth compared to May.

12 Big Twitter QuestionsWill Twitter change the way you work?Will traditional marketing die?Are there now new rules of business because of Twitter?Is newspaper advertising dead?Will your staff need to spend all their time on Twitter?Are you too busy for Twitter?Is Twitter just for my kids?Isn’t Twitter just a fad, surely it won’t last long?Will Twitter instantly bring you business?Shouldn’t we wait and ‘just see what happens’ with Twitter?If we start using Twitter for business, won’t people criticise us? Can Twitter add value to our business?

12 Big Twitter AnswersNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo NoYes Yes

“Go fishing where the fish swim”

Of key relevance to a business considering using TwitterAudiences aged above 25 have experienced a huge 84% growth in Twitter adoption over the past 6 months20% growth happening within the 55+ age rangeIsn’t this your customer / client base?

Ten reasons to use Twitter for businessBrandingTraffic Networking Notify customers immediatelyPromote latest newsFind prospective corporate clientsGet feedbackMake friends with your peers Track your competitors SEO – your @name – inbound links – Google

Know your end goals before you startTwitter is a powerful tool that can provide you access to a whole new world!. From networking to participating in stimulating conversations to building your brand and having some fun , you will get more out of Twitter if you begin with a goal in mind. My goals on Twitter are:Expand my network, by engaging with like minded peoplePromote my brand (website, blog etc)Identify potential business opportunitiesFind new sources of knowledge (people and websites etc)Sharing expertise , knowledge and opinionHave some fun

www.twitter.comHereAnd don’t tick this box!

Register your namesFill in the bio AND upload a photo Make sure you enter your website URL Use one of the platforms: Tweetdeck or Seismic Desktop And remember…only140 characters

The EssentialsTweet: an update message with a maximum length of 140 characters, visible by everyone including GoogleFollowing:you see the tweets when people you follow update themFollowers: they see your tweets when you update Twitter@replies:you reply with @username, and engage in conversationDirect Messages: if you follow each other, you can send private direct messages to each other – DM’s# hashtags: allows you to create categories, groups or topics for tweets that others can use as well

The EssentialsCont’dHow to make sure you get people following youYou must have a photo (or logo) as your imageYour bio must be complete – it is searchableUnderstand the dynamics of Twitter – don’t sell, shareVarietyInfo-tweetRe-Tweet (RT)Help TweetPostman TweetSmiley Tweet - entertainFinally the ‘you’ tweetEngage with your followersDon’t be afraid to disagree or comment Develop a tweeting strategy Keep message consistentBe interesting NOT boring Use other media – photos or video

Finding Followers1. Twittersearch .com– the primary twitter search tool2. Twitter peoplesearch.com - Twitter searches the “real names” people enter in their bio fields, it’s a good place to begin your search.3. Tweepz.com -Tweepz lets you limit searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (like name, bio, and location), filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, and greatly improves on the layout of the search results.4. TweepSearch.com – TweepSearch lets you search by Twitter name or location, or search a specific username to get a list of all friends and followers. 4. TwitDir.com – TwitDir is another search engine5. Twellow.com– Nearly 6 million Twitter user profiles are indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. 6. wefollow.com - It is a directory of Twitter users organised by interests.Alternatively you can of course just x-ray Twitter with Google - put into Google;site:twitter.com "add what you want to search for here"

Who do YOU follow and WHY?At the beginning…………..anyone!! As your numbers grow, you need to be more selective: Would you follow anyone, anywhere just because they followed you? MLM, Porn, dating sites, geeks, quoters etc Do you know what you like reading on twitter? Your industry, promotions, gossip, news, competitors etc? Would you follow people who keep trying to sell you something? Would you follow someone if they had no bio, photo and didn’t engage ( @reply) Would you be interested if all they do is sell their product/service?

Would you follow anyone, anywhere just because they followed you?

MLM, Porn, dating sites, geeks, quoters etc

Do you know what you like reading on twitter?

Your industry, promotions, gossip, news, competitors etc?

Would you follow people who keep trying to sell you something?

Would you follow someone if they had no bio, photo and didn’t engage ( @reply)

Would you be interested if all they do is sell their product/service?

Making Twitter ManageableTweetdeckSeismicdesktop…and of course mobile phones

My Top 10 Tools for Twittermanages the scheduling of your tweetswww.socialoomph.comfeeds an RSS feed into your Twitter stream. This is how you can post your blog to Twitter automaticallyhttp://twitterfeed.comallows you to share photographs easily on Twitterwww.twitpic.comautomatically find you people to follow based on keywordswww.twollo.comthis great tool will tell you all the Re-Tweets (RT’s) on Twitter for a specific URL. Great tracking tool for your URL’sBackTweets.com

Cont’dhttp://bit.ly/ - this converts URL’s into short URL’s (as there is a 140 character limit in Twitter.) It also tracks your tweets http://mrtweet.com/ - your Personal Networking Assistant for Twitter, helping you identify relevant followers, recommending you to other usershttp://Tweetbeep.com– a tool that simply informs you when anyone is talking about you on TwitterGoogle alerts – (not just for Twitter here) Just an awesome tool that searches Google and tells you when you are mentioned (whatever name you choose)http://hashtags.org - allows you to create and track trends, keywords, subjects or groupsSara’s Bonus http://140it.com/- helps you get your tweets down to 140 characters!

Groups on Twitterwww.tweetworks.com- The best of the bunch because it’s so quick and easy to setup a group. Another good option is the ability to post messages just to your group or to the group and the public Twitter timeline at the same time. Tweetdeck– create and track groups Seismic Desktop - create and track groups

Hashtags # The hashtag or #tag added to a tweet acts as way to create categories, groups or topics for tweets that others can use as well. Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword as you write your Twitter update (for example, #twitterworkshop. Track the tagged conversations that interest you. Twitter updates that include a valid hashtag are indexed at Hashtags.org, organized by tag, and available as individual RSS feeds. This means that you don't have to be a Twitter user to follow the conversation — it's visible to anyone. Let’s say a group of folks are attending a workshop and tweeting their notes in real time. If everyone at that workshop were asked to add something like #mkt101 to their tweets, everyone present or not can see and share all the notes in one place.

The hashtag or #tag added to a tweet acts as way to create categories, groups or topics for tweets that others can use as well.

Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword as you write your Twitter update (for example, #twitterworkshop.

Track the tagged conversations that interest you. Twitter updates that include a valid hashtag are indexed at Hashtags.org, organized by tag, and available as individual RSS feeds. This means that you don't have to be a Twitter user to follow the conversation — it's visible to anyone.

Let’s say a group of folks are attending a workshop and tweeting their notes in real time. If everyone at that workshop were asked to add something like #mkt101 to their tweets, everyone present or not can see and share all the notes in one place.

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