Twitter - Social Media 4 Me by @frankgorton

TWITTER Written By: Frank Gorton

http://www.frankgorton.com

@frankgorton

WHAT IS TWITTER micro-blogging 140 characters cross between IM and chat short updates

WHY USE TWITTER drive traffic to your blog virtual water cooler marketing platform major source of news informal polls just plain fun customer service competitive market analysis collaboration instant meetups more intimate relationship with clients

CANDID REASONS FOR TWITTER @Genuine - Questions answered. Just like yours just now. I have 1000's of experts waiting to give me advice. @ahrycyk - connecting with like-minded people and interacting with them. To me, the interaction is paramount. @mullally_engine - referrals and local news that you can't really get elsewhere @dinalew - info: news, tech, assns & connect: way to keep in touch with people--has supplemented email and almost replaced IM @hcdelp - Would never have time to hunt so many articles/opinions. I learn a ton every day.

WHO IS ON TWITTER Whole Foods Comcast General Motors Dell Kodak Zappos Jimmy Fallon P. Diddy Ellen Degeneres President Obama Ashton Kutcher

GOLDEN RULE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media is not a one way broadcast. You must listen first and then interact with your users, or you will quickly be labeled as outside noise and be ignored.

GETTING STARTED Twitter is free so signup today at www.twitter.com. Add your picture and fill out your profile with information about yourself. Add a link to your site or blog where people can learn more about you. LISTEN before you speak, and become part of the community.

To Start a Conversation

Simple type your message in the “What are you doing?” box.

You are limited to 140 characters.

You can use service like www.bit.ly to shorten a URL when you include a link.

GETTING STARTED

Replies

All replies start @username

Replies are public for all followers to see.

Direct Message

All Direct Messages start with

D username

Use this for a 1 to 1 conversation

GETTING STARTED

OK so you have built an account, added a photo, and listed your website in the bio. Now what?

You need to begin to reach out to the people, your customers.

Look for things that are important in your space and share them with your followers.

Add some flair and personality in there as well.

WHAT TO TWEET?

You can Tweet anything that peaks your interest. How are some possible ideas to get your started.

Ask a question.

Share great blog posts

Send a link to a great site.

Discuss up and coming events or tradeshows.

Talk about current news topics.

WHAT IF I AM A BUSINESS?

If you are a business you can also use Twitter to extend your business. Some examples include:

Personalized customer service

Extending your brand

Direct sale of a product or service

Product education

YOUR TWEET FORMULA People use Twitter for many different purposes. Each person will have a different use, and style and it will vary from person to person.

You need to find the correct balance that works for you.

Share Resources – sharing tools, tricks, tips, links, and articles.

Collaboration – connecting and collaborating with others on similar topics.

Idle Conversation – General chatter among all of your Twitter fans about anything and everything.

You will figure out the right balance for your use, my Tweet Formula is roughly

40% Sharing Resources

40% Collaborating

20% Idle Conversation.

YOUR TWEET FORMULA

RETWEET Re-tweeting is when repeat/quote someone's tweet that you found interesting. This is one of the best ways to become more recognized in your industry the more valuable your tweets the more people will re-tweet your posts.

Things to keep in mind when you are trying to get re-tweeted:

How to guide’s or handy informational guides always spread like wild fire.

Late Breaking news – earthquake info was recently spread across Twitter communities faster then traditional media covered it.

The bizarre and amusing will always spread fast because they help brighten up a person’s day.

RE-TWEETING

All Re-tweets start with RT @username

The maximum length of a Twitter message is 140 characters.

So you should use the following formula to determine the maximum number of characters.

140 – (length of your username + 5)

The 5 characters represent the “RT @”

So my max number of characters would be 140-(11+5) = 124 characters

RE-TWEETING FORMULA

SEARCH ON TWITTER The Search tool is your way to listen for your name, your competitor’s name, or other words and topics related to your space. Search.twitter.com is becoming “The” place to go to get the pulse of what people are saying to one another about a topic or person. Think of it as Competitive Analysis on steroids.

Go to search.twitter.com

Enter in your search terms

Review to see if you got the results you had expected, you may need to select another set of keywords.

SEARCH ON TWITTER

Once you have the results that you are looking for you can save the results in your favorite RSS reader.

To store your results click on the “feed for this query” link and then add this to your reader.

You can use this to keep track of your competition as well as all of your products.

SEARCH ON TWITTER

Think of Twitter search as your free inside scoop to what the public is talking about. It is your way to be a fly on the wall of your customers.

You should be reading your feeds about your products, your competition, and even yourself.

SEARCH ON TWITTER

#HASHTAGS Hashtags are a convention to use to allow you to add additional context to your tweets. They allow you to group similar Tweets and review the conversation from multiple people on www.hashtags.org To use hashtags all you have to do is put a # in front of a topic that you are writing about.

Sites like Twitter Counter http:twittercounter.com allow you to track how your account is progressing.

STATISTICS ON TWITTER

Sites like Twitter Sheep http://twittersheep.com allow you to see a word cloud of the Bios of all of your followers.

The larger the word the more frequent it is used.

STATISTICS ON TWITTER

The People at Common Craft have created a great video primer on Twitter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

TWITTER VIDEO PRIMER

Evan Williams one of the Co-Founders of Twitter talks about Twitter.

http://www.ted.com/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

EVAN WILLIAMS ON TWITTER

Below are the locations of all of the images used in this presentation.

Escalator - http://www.flickr.com/photos/janthemanson/314156696/

People Texting - http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcogomes/2433334948/

Traffic in Street - http://www.flickr.com/photos/loop_oh/3059922370/

Blurred People on Street - http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/164175205/

Street Sign - http://www.flickr.com/photos/matze_ott/2210474824

Alley Street Scene - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugley/2463217928/

Social Way Street Sign - http://www.flickr.com/photos/caseywest/346329776

Guy with bar code - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880536/

Alone in a Crowd - http://www.flickr.com/photos/chez_sugi/101118470/

Guy on a Bike - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brtsergio/184026033/

Stop Lights - http://www.flickr.com/photos/55935853@N00/2468449425

IMAGES USED

I hope you like the presentation. If you are interested in contacting me please use one of the following methods:

Twitter: @frankgorton

Website: http://www.frankgorton.com

Email: [email_address]

THANKS AND CONTACT INFO

Twitter - Social Media 4 Me by @frankgorton

2 comments

Notes on slide 1

27 Favorites & 2 Groups