New Business MN Twitter Presentation

Twitter:
How 140 Characters Changed Business

Who is this kid?
Mitchell Hislop
20
I have been doing social media for…
Cool (intl)
<codename> LINGO
www.mitchellhislop.com

Twitter?
Twttr
21 March, 2006
SMS dispatch service
E.g. I am at this awesome club in SF
First message: “just setting up my twttr”
(http://twitter.com/jack/status/20)

How did this “SMS Dispatch” change business?

SXSWi
2007
Usage tripled
THE way to find your way around the festival

Twitter hits the mainstream
Everyone could use it
Everyone knew about it
The demographic of users caused the change

@,#,D?
Users drove innovation
@ replies
Hashtags
Direct Messages

Where is Twitter now?
~60 Million accounts
Public IM
Crowdsourcing
Business Tool
NOT a direct marketing channel

How can businesses benefit from twitter?
Takeaway #1

Twitter and business:Two main camps
Marketing/PR
Increase awareness
Run promos
Gauge interest
Tap the “pulse”
See: @BajaSol
Customer Service
Stop rants
Get public opinion
Help customers resolve issues
See: @ComcastCares

Twitter for Business 101
Be Organic
Be Organic
Be Organic
You need a human manning it, not bots & feeds
Integrate it into your overall strategy
Essential in times of needing fast communication

101 cont.
Join the conversation around your brand
Note: You are NOT controlling it
Monitor your online reputation

Tips from someone in the know
On the ground, in the trenches,

Twitter Clients
Seesmic Desktop
Tweetdeck
CoTweet
Tweetie
UberTwitter
Twitterberry
CETwit

Twitter Policy
Pros
CYA
Keep everyone on the same page
Keep the corporate message
Cons
Cuts down on organic conversation
Can cause issues if you make it too strict

What twitter really means for business.
Now forget everything

What Twitter has done
Changed the structure of communications between brands and the masses
Made users want more things real-time
Gave users an output for their thoughts on a brand

Changed the structure
Everyone is equal
1:1

Café-shaped conversations

Real-time
Wildfires
Wildfires

Users can talk about you, in any way, at any time, to lots of people
The biggest change…

Why Twitter?
First
Best
SXSW
Winner of the microblogging format war

Twitter doesn’t matter
It’s changes matter, but

It could be any service
It just so happens to be Twitter right now
Twitter could change tomorrow
Users will stay the same
Users will want the same

What Twitter means for business
A paradigm shift
A new channel for interacting
A new part of your marketing mix

Contact us for resources
Any Questions? Q&A at the end.
Want to tweet about me?
@mitchellhislop
@coolintl
@codenamelingo