Twitter for Business

Twitter for Business
Paul Gillin
Author, The New Influencers
Secrets of Social Media Marketing
gillin.com

Twitter is a
Microblog Service
It is the simplest form of blog. But in simplicity there is often great power.
“ A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller, in both actual size and aggregate file size…microbloggers post about topics ranging from the simple, such as ‘what I'm doing right now,’ to the thematic, such as ‘sports cars.’”
--Wikipedia

A Few Microblogging Services
And, of course…

Did You Know That…
600 new tweets are created every second? (Twitter)
10% of Twitter users account for 90% of all activity? (Harvard Business School)
The more followers you have, the more you tweet? (Sysomos)
Brazilians are the second largest population of Twitter users? (Sysomos)
15% of all US adults will use a microblog service this year? (eMarketer)
Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres each have more followers than President Obama? (Twitterholic.com)

Using Twitter is Like Fishing a Stream
It’s a constant flow of information that yields continual discovery

Many Uses for Twitter

Publish Everywhere
44 million members
32 million members
300 million members
1 billion daily views
1 million daily visitors
6 million daily visitors
1.5 million daily visitors
10 million members
50 million members

International Flavor
Source: Twitter, Compete.com

What’s the big deal about 140?
Here’s what 140 characters looks like:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposi”
Or Tweetshrunk to:
“4 score & 7 years ago R fthrs brought forth on ths continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, & dedicated 2 the prop that all men R crea”

The Appeal of “Ambient Intimacy”
“Facebook users didn't think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive.
“Each individual bit of social information is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends' and family members' lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.”
--Clive Thompson, The New York Times, 9/8/09

Uses For Twitter in Business
Branding
Hiring
Traffic building
Professional networking
Publicity
News
Prospecting
Feedback
Peer relations
Competitive tracking
Search engine optimization
Mobile visibility
$
Source: Sirona Consulting

Getting Started
Sign up
Create personal and business accounts; keep names short!
If tweeting for business, choose username linked to business (i.e. “@MeganCIO”
Fill out that profile
160 characters; choose ‘em wisely!
Use keywords
Link to an “About” page on your site
Include photo or logo, depending on intended use
Change the default background
Choose images and themes consistent with the intended persona
Pay attention to business marketing guidelines

Choose a background

Step Two
Choose a Reader
Twitter.com just doesn’t cut it for active users
Seesmic (top) and Tweetdeck are popular choices
Choose a mobile client
Readers support filtering, lists, profiles, follow/unfollow, multimedia, cross-posting to other social networks, tweetshrink, URL shortening
Follow people
Start with a small list and grow
Follow your friends, then find people through search.twitter.com, Listorious the people others follow
Listen For a While
Tweetdeck
Seesmic
Tweetie
Twitterific
(iPhone)
Pandora
(Android)

Monitor Conversations

It's Your Turn to Talk
Say Something Interesting
Cite good articles on the Web
Comment on others’ tweets
Talk about others, not yourself
The Golden Ratio is 9:1
For every one tweet promoting yourself, send nine promoting others
Be courteous, even if you disagree
Take time to look up user IDs of others you quote
@ShellyKramer: It's An Exciting Time to Be A Creative Type | http://bit.ly/c1Fzxo
Do not have your username "admin" when using a wordpress blog #wcmia
New Mashable app is massive improvement from previous incantation and soo glad they dumped that 'graphic' or whatever it was
Facebook Problems Today: Photo Uploads Broken and Other Issues http://bit.ly/cuRs2n
4 Reasons Why Nobody Reads Your Blog http://ow.ly/19kDd #BloggingTips by @binterest
Romania seeks to tax fatty fast food http://is.gd/8JS5a
16 unusual facts about the human body http://u.nu/3fpw5

Consider Your Persona
Helpful?
Funny?
Offbeat?
Sympathetic?
Snarky?
Unpredictable?
Try following some popular people , then choose a style that makes sense for you

Check out this interesting article! http://bit.ly/bvnPDV
New entry on my blog: http://bit.ly/bvnPDV
@JasonFalls do you like @Backupify? I've heard of it but never from someone I trust who uses it.
It’s snowing in Austin and raining in New York. Something’s wrong!
We just launched a new product! http://bit.ly/bvnPDV
Info tweet
Retweet
Help tweet
Six Types of Tweets
RT @copyblogger Revised AP style guide http://bit.ly/bvnPDV
Postman tweet
Smiley tweet
Source: Sirona Consulting
Youtweet

Don’t…
Flame or use abusive language
Repeat personal or confidential information
Talk about your gambling, drinking or other after-hours exploits
Complain about clients or colleagues
Repeatedly send the same tweet
Twitter is public and searchable. People are listening!

Terms to know
Tweet: A single Twitter message of 140 characters or less
Profile: Your Twitter persona, including contact info and 160-character profile
Follower: Unilateral relationship in which a person chooses to receive all your tweets
Tweetstream: The flow of tweets from people you follow
Public Timeline: The globally visible Twitter stream
@Reply: Public response to a single user that is directed to a special inbox for that user. Also appears on tweetstreams of that person’s followers
Retweet: Twitter message forwarded to another member’s followers

Terms to know
Direct Message (DM): Private Tweet; the equivalent of an e-mail or text message
Block: Prevents someone from following you
Tweeple: People who tweet
Tweetup: Meeting organized via Twitter; the event itself is usually heavily tweeted
List: 2009 enhancement that enables members to group and share lists other tweeple by category
Favorite: Saved tweet
Connections: Applications permitted to access your account
Geotag: Optional geographic annotation that tells people where you are

URL Shorteners – There are About 100 of Them
Statistics about URLs you share
Embeds ads in tweets
Create custom URLs like bit.ly/IDGSeminar
Look For:
Bookmarklets/browser integration
Analytics
Geotargeting
Custom URLs
Compatibility with your reader
From This:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=one+speen+street,+framingham,+ma&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1+Speen+St,+Framingham,+Middlesex,+Massachusetts+01701&gl=us&ei=-hOES45dh-GUB4G1_I4C&ved=0CAcQ8gEwAA&z=16
Claims world’s shortest URLs
To This:
http://3.ly/lyx

Tips from the Experts
Be useful. Be helpful. Be an authority
Demonstrate you know your market
Promote your work thoughtfully
Share links and knowledge
Use LinkedIn contacts or business cards to look up and follow people in your field
Alternate between something relevant to your business and something irrelevant. Comments on the tax season can alternate with notes about my passion fruits coming into season.
Add “Follow Me on Twitter” to your emails, web site, and other communications
Focus on one or two of your followers a day. Spotlight something about them in a tweet. They’ll notice.
Excerpted from “137 Twitter Tips: How Small Businesses Get The Most
From Twitter” by Small Business Trends (@smallbiztrends)

Tips from the Experts
Twellow.com helps you find people in your industry or your region. It’s like yellow pages for Twitter.
Don’t follow too many more people than follow you, or you risk looking like a spammer.
Find other companies that are similar to yours and follow them. Their customers will start following you.
The smart way to market on Twitter: Don’t. Instead, provide value to others.
Always be positive. The quickest way to get me to stop listening to you is to constantly complain.
When the people you are following put out a tweet for help, answer back. Don’t let the it die in cyberspace.
If you ask for a RT (retweet) leave at least 15 characters so people RT’ingyour message don’t have to shorten it.
Excerpted from “137 Twitter Tips: How Small Businesses Get The Most
From Twitter” by Small Business Trends (@smallbiztrends)

Advanced Tools
Direct Message – Essentially a short, private e-mail (Both parties must be following each other).
Hash tag – Text string that categorizes a tweet’s relevance to a theme. Examples: #fail, #tigerwoods, #obama, #macworld. Useful in organizing and trending
Auto reply – Controversial practice of sending automated responses to new followers

Use Hash Tags To…
Find people with similar interests
Create conversations around a brand or event
Create structured online events
Monitor topics of interest
Discover new sources and information
Quick assess sentiment

Twitter Culture
Trends: Popular topics of the moment, often displayed as tag clouds
Selling: Just don’t
Memes: Thematic conversations, often tied to days of the week. Ex: #FollowFriday, #Music Monday, #SinnerSunday
Responses: It’s considered a snub to fail to respond to a request sent as an @ message
Texting Slang: Avoid all but the essential. “IMO” is OK; “LMFAO” isn’t

Building Followers: The Quality/Quantity Tradeoff

A Tiny Sampling of Follower Services
TwtrFrnd - Find out who two members follow in common, plus who member 1 is following who also follows member 2
TweetSum - Follow or ignore your recent followers with a simple drag and drop interface
TwtUpon - Find people based up on interests and feedback
Topify- One-click follow-back; Answer direct messages from your inbox
TwitSeeker - Find & follow tweeps based on keywords
Joule- Charts, graphs, and RSS feeds of your follower changes.
TheTwitterBot - AutoFollow massive number of new people
Tweepi - Value of metrics to help find people to follow and unfollow
Twitroduce - Track activity around your tweets. One-click of other usersstalking (and who is stalking them).
iHazFollow - Check to see who is following who, and if the relationship is reciprocated.
Source: Twitter Fan Wiki

Word to the Wise
Twitter has a very open architecture
This is both blessing and curse
A lot of Twitter apps don’t work or deliver questionable results
404 – Caveat Emptor
Just don’t expect too much

Engage Popular People
1.7 million followers
473,000 followers
980,000 followers

Building your follower base
Follow people you admire
Comment upon and retweet their messages
Include their Twitter name
If they follow you, thank them
Ask for advice, input
It’s occasionally OK to ask for a RT
They know they’re important; don’t abuse the relationship
Checking out "Facebook and Health Ads" on @WEGOHealth : http://ning.it/93dQ6z
Tweeps: I'm in front of a college journalism class. What shld these students know abt social media.
RT @tshuttleworth: This is the golden age of engagement for book publishers. - Arianna Huffington #toccon

Building your follower base
Attend and organize events
Tweet from events you attend
Create Twitter-only events
Add your Twitter ID to all communications
Participate in topical Twitter chats
Think outside the box: What can you try with Twitter?
#brandchat(Weds. @ 10)
#smallbizchat (Weds. @ 7)
#solorpr(Weds. @ noon)
#journchat (Mon. @ 7)
#blogchat (Sun. @ 8)

Auto-follow
Follow
Robotic process in which a person automatically follows back any new followers
Follow
Pros
Quick way for both parties to build follower count
Easily automated
Can introduce both parties to wide variety of other perspectives
Cons
Accumulates undesirable followers
Tweetstream quickly becomes unwieldy
Looks like a numbers game

Twitter Buzz
Dana Lewis (@danamlewis) and co-creator Arik Hanson created the Twitter hashtag #hcsm in early 2009 to stimulate a discussion of healthcare issues. It has become the most cited healthcare community on Twitter, drawing more than 2,000 followers for the moderator account, 50 to100 regular participants during each weekly scheduled chat and contributions from more than 200 people throughout the week.
AdWeek used Twitter, video and near-real-time reporting to bring an eager US audience the latest news from the annual Cannes advertising festival. The coverage spiked the b-to-b magazine’s website traffic and provided comprehensive coverage of an event that’s crucial to its audience

Offbeat and Original
Paul Armstrong has built a following of more than 22,000 people for his Twitter persona @themediaisdying. Last summer he was hired as head of social media for one of Europe’s largest public sector consultancies.
A team of 16 publishing professionals collaborate on the satirical tweet stream @fakeapstylebook. They’ve amassed more than 100,000 followers in less than four months with just 850 tweets. A book is in the works.
Justin Halpern began recording his father’s off-color and often hilarious homespun wisdom on @Sh*tMyDadSays. Six months and 103 tweets later, he’s got 1.2 million followers and a TV pilot.

The Twitter Fan Page Wiki lists more than 700 applications. Everyone’s tastes are different. Some of my favorites:
Continuous keyword/ hashtag monitoring
Big directory of businesses on Twitter
Measures power, reach and authority of a Twitter account
Schedule tweets for later delivery
TweetStats analyzes your own Twitter activity
Who’s tweeting in your area
Customer Twitter dashboard

Business Uses of Twitter

Informa-tional
Promo-tional
Informa-tional
Informa-tional
Informa-tional
Auto-matic
Informa-tional
Personal
Informa-tional
Category
Category
Category
Action
Action
Action
Twitter in Business
Broadcast
Listen
Engage
Conver-sation
Primary Flow of Information
Primary Flow of Information
Trend research based on analysis of Twitter data
Ask questions, conduct market research
Collect ideas, innovations and feedback from social network
Customer service and retention
Humanize brand, increase staff retention, build team spirit
Expert exchange
Publish recent news
Advertise events, activities, products and promotions
Automatically broadcast of events related to business
Source: Richard Caelius (@rcaelius)

Dell on Twitter
33 Twitter accounts
Special offers and promotions (by segment and geography), special interest engagement groups and information channel
Top 10 accounts have more than 98% of the followers, top account (DellOutlet) has more than 90%. Median is 618 followers
15% off any Dell Outlet Insp 11z, 15-1545 or 17-1750 laptop with coupon*! Enter code at checkout: ?PZMKKWHQG7DMM. http://cot.ag/7mwkWd.
Alltags-Problem-Wettbewerb
Analysis & Frameworks
Flow of Information
Type of Comms
Personal
Broad-cast
Infor-ma-tional
Auto-matic
En-gage
Listen
Promotional
Principal Value
Additional channel for promotions
Free permission marketing

Spending time connecting with candidates on Sodexo Careers Facebook page this AM - http://www.facebook.com/SodexoCareers
Sodexo Recruiters
Most of the company‘s 60 recruiters user Twitter and other social media to meet hiring demand.
Focus is on building relationships and enthusiasm among prospective employees
Traffic to careers site up 182% in last two years, job applications up 25%. Recruitment ad costs down $300K
Spending time connecting with candidates on Sodexo Careers Facebook page this AM - http://www.facebook.com/SodexoCareers
Principal Value
Personal relationships with recruiters improve applicant quality
Image of Sodexo as progressive company appeals to young workers
Recruitment costs substantially reduced
Quote
“The human touch is essential. People know there’s somebody behind the message and the photo.”
-Kerry Noone, Manager, Marketing Communications

Albions Oven
AlbionsOven (Der Bäcker Ofen)
Keep customers informed/engaged about current status of product/service
In this business, timing matters
Twitter is low-cost real-time promotional channel
Goals: Increase demand and customer loyalty
Contrary to popular belief, our golden gallic Croissants are perfect anytime, not just breakfast. http://bakertweet.com/m/714

Analysis & Frameworks
Flow of Information
Type of Comms
Personal
Broad-cast
Infor-ma-tional
Auto-matic
En-gage
Listen
Promotional
Best Practice
Good use of realtime/neartime Twitter features
Messages are informative, witty and original

Twitter in the Enterprise
Still a very early-stage market
Tools mainly manage multiple accounts and monitor conversations
Next generation will automate posting across multiple channels, summarize feedback and follow up on actions
This will be a hotbed of activity during the next two years as corporations learn that Twitter is the killer social media application

Useful Links
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business – Chris Brogan
100 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals - Online Best Colleges.com
Twitter tools for teams – BtoB magazine
Twitter Fan Wiki
A Twitter Mini-Guide: 60+ Useful Twitter Resources – E-Marketing Performance
A Twitter Basics Primer – BuzzBin
62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business – WebWorker Daily
The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter – WebDesigner Depot
101 Tweets on How to Use Twitter – SEO Blog
The 10 Twitter Commandments – Econsultancy
137 Small Business Twitter Tips – Small Business Trends

Thank you!
Paul Gillin
508-656-0734
paul@gillin.com
www.gillin.com
Twitter: pgillin
Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter at gillin.com
Available on Amazon or at NewInfluencers.com
Available on Amazon or at SSMMbook.com
Coming late 2010: Social Marketing to the Business Customer
By Paul Gillin & Eric Schwartzman

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Twitter for Business

by Paul Gillin on Feb 23, 2010

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Twitter for Business — Presentation Transcript