4. Twitter – what is it?
• Twitter www.twitter.com is a social networking service
combining elements of blogging and texting (now
multimedia as well)
• It allows users to send updates to their friends (or
"followers") via the web or mobile phone
• Messages (or "tweets") are up to 140 characters each
• Unlike Facebook/Linkedin, anyone on Twitter can follow
your updates
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9. There are lies, damned lies, statistics
and twitter statistics
The most important stat is whether
your ‘customers’ use it or can be
encouraged/trained to use it and the
value add to the relationship
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10. Points to Note
• The ‘tweet river’ is becoming polluted – create music not
noise – see blog post ‘Why People Unfollow’
• Listen, learn, develop ‘actionable insight’ (by ‘following’
the right people). ‘We have two ears and one mouse’
• Broadcast/PR – inform, increase awareness
• Cost effective communications tool, instant/timely
updates
• But it is NOT just about one way broadcasting – its about
conversation and engagement – this has time and
resource implications
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11. Points to Note
• Twitter should be fully aligned with and supportive of
your core marcoms objectives and with other marcoms
channels
• Should deliver real business benefits and ROI –
information, awareness, engagement, accountability,
feedback, listen, actionable insights, key
customer/partner/stakeholder relationships
• Adopt a ‘customer led’ approach
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12. Business Benefits
Improved marcoms
effectiveness and efficiency
Performance measurement tools are available
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13. Stop & Reflect
Twitter Exercise 1
Vision and Strategy
What do you want to use it for?
What business benefits do you hope to derive?
How will Twitter help you achieve your core business
objectives?
What KPIs will you use for measuring on-going channel
performance? What are your targets for each KPI?
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15. Getting Started
• Go to Twitter.com. Click on the "Join the Conversation"
button in middle of the page
• Fill out basic information. This will include your full name,
preferred user name, password and e-mail address.
Remember that the user name is what people will see with an
"@" symbol in front of it. For example, @yourname
• See if your contacts are on Twitter. After you fill out basic
info, you'll be prompted to look for contacts in your Gmail,
Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail or AOL accounts so you can begin
following them if they're already on the service
• Look at Twitter's suggestions. Twitter will suggest some
people for you to follow as well. Check to see if any of them
are relevant
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16. Getting Started
• Set up your profile. Click on "settings" in the upper right
corner of your Twitter home page. You'll be brought to a tab-
based menu that helps you build your profile and adjust
settings
• Fill in the fields. Of particular importance is the "one line bio"
under the "Account" tab. You have 160 characters to present
yourself to the Twitter community. Many people choose to
state their profession, and then maybe something outside of
work that interests them as well
• Although, direct access to the Twitter Website is still the most
popular means of managing your Twitter activity, popular
Twitter clients like TweetDeck make managing your Twitter
world much easier
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17. Stop & Reflect Twitter Exercise 2
Make sure you understand the following terms:
– Layout: Home Page, Profile, Messages, Who to Follow,
Account Settings, Search
– Design – can be personalised, to some extent
– Tweets
– Retweets (RT)
– @reply
– Direct message
– Hashtags #
– Follow/unfollow; following/followers
– Lists
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21. Key Success Factors
The 4Cs of Building a
Successful Twitter Channel
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22. The 4Cs Framework
• Customers
– engage with the right ‘customers’ and build your
community
• Content
– be ‘customer led’ and add value
• Conversations
– twitter is not a broadcast channel. It is marketing as a
‘conversation’
• Conversions
– the ‘call-to-action’; core business objectives
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23. Stop & Reflect Twitter Exercise 3
Twitter Exercise 3
Who are your customers – who do you
wish to engage with on Twitter? How will
you find them?
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25. Building Your Community
• Use your existing communications channels
• Use the community building tools provided by
twitter
• Some advice on "Finding Your Tribe"...Start by
Following, Engage and Be Followed, the role of
Influencers, Directories, Spam and Avoid Get
Follower Fast Schemes
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26. Building Your Community on Twitter
1. Start By Following
• Aim to follow 100 ‘quality’ profiles initially – to get started and
get on the learning curve
• Some will ‘reciprocate’ but users are becoming more
discerning – quality of your tweets and depth of engagement
(replies, DM) are critical
• As your twitter presence develops, your level of conversion
should increase
• Tools are available for showing who followed you back
http://friendorfollow.com and http://www.tweepler.com
• Network (through Replies or Direct Messages) and otherwise
striving to add value with every tweet
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27. Building Your Community
1a. Deciding Who to Follow
• You should aim to follow accounts that add value to both you
and your network
• Identify sources for “value” messages. Only follow those that
provide valuable messages on a regular basis
• Follow those who are ‘influencers’ for your target customers
This will help you to keep track of their tweets /
conversations. You may be followed back. You will see
opportunities for more direct engagement
• You can easily identify those to follow in a number of ways
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28. Building Your Community
1b. Follow through Quality Content
• The best way to find ‘Who to Follow’ is through the quality of
their Tweets and Retweets (and through search and lists).
• A good focused Tweet can indicate if someone is worthy of a
follow.
• This works both ways. Consider the quality of your Tweets and
the impact this is having on you being followed
• There are good twitter search tools available
– http://search.twitter.com/search
http://www.tweetdeck.com/
– http://www.tweepi.com
• Social Media Monitoring Tools (www.topsy.com and others)
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29. Building Your Community
1c. Use of Twitter Directories
• A range of directories have emerged which have attempted to
categorize people to follow, through their interests and
professional background.
– We Follow http://wefollow.com
– Twellow http://www.twellow.com/
– Twibs http://www.twibs.com
– Twitterati http://twittorati.com/
• We would suggest subscribing to some of the more popular
directories and getting a profile up there also, makes it easier
again for others to find you and understand quickly what
you're all about
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30. Building Your Community
1d. Use of Spam Avoidance Techniques
• There are many examples of Spam on Twitter and a
mechanism is provided on both the Twitter website and some
of the more popular clients to report this
• Tools are available for validating the 'follow' processes e.g.
TrueTwit http://truetwit.com/truetwit/signUp
• Best way to avoid spam is through careful selection of profiles
to follow.
• Be aware of ‘get rich quick schemes’ and avoid overtly
attractive profile pictures
• Remember the old adage, if it seems too good to be true it
usually is
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31. Building Your Community
1e. Do Not Automate the Follow Process
• Tools are available for automating the follow process
• We do not recommend these tools.
• Examples include:
http://twitterbatcher.com
http://followformation.com
1f. Avoid Get Followers Fast Schemes
• There are a number of 'get followers fast' schemes
• Don’t use them
• Your aim should be ‘quality’
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37. Content
• Quality tweets are the key to success
• 140 characters but try for less to encourage RTs (140-7)
• Include shortlinks when appropriate
• Agree tone, theme, frequency
• Remember to use @username if you want the individual
to see the reply or to respond
• Balance of Retweets (RTs) and Direct Messages (DM)
• Organisation and people aspects
• Content policy and strategy
• What makes a great Tweeter?
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38. Content
• Be very careful with twitter gaffes
• Many examples of slip-ups
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39. Conversations
• Social media is ‘marketing as a conversation’ with your
network
• It is not about one way broadcasting
• This has time and resource implications
• Some advice......
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40. Conversations
• Tweet
– Your tweets should add value
– Number and frequency depends on your customers -
frequency is driven by relevance and anticipation from
your network
– Format issues – be concise – less than 140 characters to
encourage RT and where relevant use a link and url link
shortener e.g. bit.ly.
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41. Conversations
Reply and Direct Messages
• These features allow you to engage Twitter in a different way
i.e. it becomes as much a 1-1 communication tool as a
broadcast tool
• It can allow a dialogue between Twitter profiles and on
specific Tweets.
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42. Conversations
• Retweet
– Retweeting can add significant value to your network but
don’t overdo it.
– Also – you should be aiming to get your own tweets
retweeted….viral effect and you become an ‘influencer’
– Encourage an RT if its really important
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43. Conversations
• Using Hashtags
– Words or phrases pre-fixed with # e.g. #topic
– Conversations clustered around a theme. Helps you find
where relevant conversations are taking place and join in
– Hashtags give your tweets (and you) more prominence on
certain issues
– Don’t spam or misrepresent the # e.g. Habitat
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44. Conversations
Twitter Chat
• Chatting can be conducted through Twitter.
• Usually this involves a chat event at a certain time e.g. chat on
the Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen at xpm EST.
• You tweet and add a hashtag to each tweet #climate
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45. Conversations
Create an Interdependent Presence
• Networks thrive on interconnectedness and cross fertilization
• Ensure multi channel coordination
• You can integrate Twitter with Facebook (#fb) and your Blog
Consider Automating Your Tweets
• If you regularly post your own articles, use of an application
like Twitterfeed http://twitterfeed.com or Posterous
http://posterous.com/ can make sense
• But consider carefully your use of these tools and don’t spam
• Manual tweets are more personal - there is a balance to be
struck here
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48. Conversations
Using Lists
• A good way to organize your information flow
• Group Twitter profiles under topics/quality
• You can subscribe to others’ lists
• The number of lists which you become part of illustrates the
power of your tweets...another measure of your influence
• You are more likely to be found and followed through lists
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51. Stop & Reflect Twitter Exercise 4
Evaluate your current
Content/Conversation approach?
Make recommendations for improvement
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52. Conversion
• It is critical to measure the performance of your Twitter
activities
• This can be done in two ways – ‘lag’ and ‘lead’ measures
• ‘Lag’ measures are your ultimate ‘business’ objectives
e.g. feedback, insights, service awareness, accountability,
marcoms effectiveness and efficiency, ROI etc
• ‘Lead’ measures are the main ‘drivers’ that help to
achieve your core objectives
• This could include....
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53. Performance Measurement
• Number of followers / that you follow
• Growth in followers over time
• Total number of Tweets
• Average number of Tweets over time
• Number of Retweets
• Number of Lists you are in
• Who's Following You vs. Who You Are Following
To be continued…..
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55. Make Use of Relevant Applications
• Desktop, Browser and Mobile Clients
• Tweet Feeds
• Twitter Search
• Analytics
• Directories and Follow Services
• Others
See http://energise2-0.com/2011/02/04/a-list-of-
useful-twitter-applications/
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61. Performance Measurement
• It is critical to measure the performance of your Twitter
activities
• This can be done in two ways – ‘lag’ and ‘lead’ measures
• ‘Lag’ measures are your ultimate ‘business’ objectives
e.g. feedback, insights, service awareness, accountability,
marcoms effectiveness and efficiency, ROI etc
• ‘Lead’ measures are the main ‘drivers’ that help to
achieve your core objectives
• These could include....
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62. Performance Measurement
• Number of followers / that you follow
• Growth in followers over time
• Total number of Tweets
• Average number of Tweets over time
• Number of Retweets
• Number of Lists you are in
• Who's Following You vs. Who You Are Following
There are a number of tools available for monitoring your
twitter performance, including:
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64. Stop & Reflect Twitter Exercise 6
Use one or more of the following tools to monitor
the performance of a twitter account of your own
choice
• Klout http://klout.com/
• Kred www.kred.com
• Twtrland www.twtrland.com
• Topsy http://analytics.topsy.com
• Export.ly http://export.ly
• TweetStats http://tweetstats.com
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72. Kodak is an Influential Brand
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73. Stop & Reflect Twitter Exercise 7
Organisation, People and Resource Aspects
Do you have the right organisational ‘culture’ and ‘mindset’ for
this channel to succeed? How will the channel be managed and
resourced? Policies and Guidelines?
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75. Do’s and Don’t’s
• Don’t Be a Showoff
– Your tweets should add value to the ‘customer’ – it’s not
about ‘me,me,me’
• Don’t Use Poor Grammar or Spelling
– Don’t try to be too cool
• Don’t Get Too Personal (business users)
– Keep the conversations warm but professional; it’s what
business users expect and anything else comes off as
creepy
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76. Do’s and Don’t’s
• Don’t Auto-Tweet
– It’s OK to schedule tweets for specific times but don’t
automate your entire feed. Users can smell a bot a mile
away. Twitter is about personal/brand engagement not
blatant promotion. Don’t automatically DM new followers;
it’s seen as spam.
• Don’t Leave Air in the Conversation
– Respond as quickly as possible – within hours not days.
• Don’t Overtweet
– Don’t flood your followers’ timelines
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77. Do’s and Don’t’s
• Do Shout Out to Users Who Mention You
– Thank those making favourable comments; be very careful
how you respond to any negative comments
• Do Monitor Keywords and Sector Trends
– And respond when appropriate
• Do Make an Informative Profile
– Use your brand logo as your avatar, and state the purpose
of the account clearly in your description. Your profile’s
main link should direct Twitter followers to the most
informative, engaging and user-friendly part of your
website
• Do Fish Where the Fish Are
– Where your customers hang out ENERGISE2-0.COM