This presentation is designed to teach prospects and partners how to leverage Twitter to connect with customers and leads, thus achieving business growth in the managed IT services market. Because digital marketing is here to stay, we aim to continue advocating forward-thinking business principles so as to drive revenue and profitability in the channel.

1. Getting Started with
Twitter

2. • What is Twitter and Why Is It Important?
• What Does This Mean For You? How Can You Use
Twitter?
• The Cost of NOT Participating
• Getting Started and Jumping in
• Not All of Your Tweets Should Be Sells or Pitches
• Who to Follow? How to Get More Followers?
• Partners, Prospects, and Customers are Using It
• What’s the Deal with Re-Tweeting?
• #Hashtags
• How to Operationalize This
• Dos and Don’ts
Agenda
Twitter Isn’t
Optional
Anymore
Getting Started
With Twitter
How-Tos of
Twitter
title image source: http://www.noop.nl/

3. • Microblogging
– via sharing short status
updates (max 140
char)
– A great place to find +
share URLs
to other content
• Asynchronous network
– A can follow B without
B having to follow A
• 2 ½-minute video on
“Twitter in Plain English”
What Is Twitter … And Why Is It Important?
Image originally created at http://lovelycharts.com/

4. What Is Twitter … And Why Is It Important?
• 540M users, 340M tweets…and
growing
• Used by marketers, people
seeking brand assistance, or just
plain ol’ investigating
– real-time search
– brand management
– other uses
• Twitter is a platform that permits
all kinds of things
• Offers real-time, direct line of
communication for partners and
prospects
image source:
http://strategyplanone.wordpress.com/2012/05/27
/twitter-statistics-showing-exponential-growth-
infographic/

5. What Does This Mean For You?
• This may seem like it is just another task to add to your list. But, for…
– marketing, it helps with market research, validation, spying on competition, event
support
– prospecting, it helps with identifying people needing help, answering questions
– establishing credibility, it helps with getting known for what you do, generating trust
• It is really another tool (not another task) to help you do what you are
already doing: staying tuned in to the market, the space, the industry,
the… (you get the idea)
image source: Mufidah Kassalias’ flickr photo
stream

6. • Follow media types,
bloggers, journalists
• Look/listen for questions
getting asked about our
products (see hashtag
slide for an example)
• Follow talk of industry
and trends
• Share news about events
• Share links to information
• Ask a question
How Can You Use Twitter?
Focus on the verbs
image sources: author screenshots

7. • If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it,
did it actually happen?
– Yes. Conversations are taking place, with or without you.
– Every online conversation – positive or negative – is an opportunity to
engage.
• If you’re not part of the conversation, then you’re leaving it to others to
answer questions and provide information, whether it’s accurate or
incorrect.
– ‘Others’ could be your competition
• Negativity will not go away simply
because you opt out of participating.
• So, opt in. JUMP IN.
The Cost of Not Participating
image source: Christopher Sessums’ flickr photo stream

8. Getting Started
• Set up your own account at
www.twitter.com (user ID [15 characters max],
password, an e-mail address)
• Submit a picture or
somehow-related avatar, create your profile + bio
– Be real. Be human.
• Send out a test tweet, dip your toe in the water,
search for something interesting
• Use @ messages to start generating some
interest for your own account
image sources: author screenshots

9. Jumping In
image sources: author screenshots
• Re-tweet, recommend people, and start engaging…
Helping and sharing are two huge currencies in social media
– One-way promotion is not
• You can use the http://www.twitter.com interface, or a third-party
application (HootSuite is a good one – also available on mobile) –
HubSpot offers access, too
– Can also connect in LinkedIn to HootSuite as well, making it a central
dashboard
– Install browser extensions (‘Hootlet’, HubSpot) to share content as you
browse

10. • Method (the cleaning products
company) is a great example 
• Five recent tweets, all replies to
people, one is a link to their jobs
page, and none is a pitch or a ‘buy
our stuff’
• …and they have 17,000 followers
Not All of Your Tweets Should Be Sells or Pitches
Remember the 4-1-1 Rule:
image sources: http://www.123print.com/blog/7-ways-to-improve-your-linkedin-company-page/ ;
http://blog.marketo.com/2012/07/the-4-1-1-rule-for-lead-nurturing.html ; author screenshot

11. • Try www.WeFollow.com and enter
key search phrases
– e.g., Managed Service, RMM,
MDM
• Go to a prominent Twitter account
that you like, and see who they/it
follows, and their/its followers
• Look at their contact info on
LinkedIn
Who to Follow? How to Get More Followers?
image sources: author screenshots

12. Partners, Prospects, and Customers are Using It
image sources: author screenshots

13. What’s The Deal With Re-Tweeting?
• Re-tweet is spreading a message. Remember: Helping and sharing
are two huge currencies in social media.
• Usual syntax is as follows:
– RT (for ‘Re-Tweet’) then a space, then an @ sign and a Twitter ID (giving
that person credit), then the message
– Some people also use the message and then add “(via @___)” at the end
of the message
– You can also use the Retweet function in Twitter (no option to add a
message, though)
• Can add an optional leading or trailing message if you use the manual
method
image sources: author screenshots

14. What’s The Deal With Re-Tweeting?
• Avoid re-tweeting someone’s re-tweet of you
– It comes across as, “Hey everyone! Look what someone else already said
about me, after I said it first!”
• Keep in mind the 140 character limit
– If you want someone to re-tweet you,
give them room!
– Keep your message (including any URLs or
picture links) to no more than 120 characters, so
they can quote or schedule a re-tweet!
• Click on ‘Notifications’ to see who mentioned or
replied to you, followed you, or re-tweeted you
image sources: author screenshots

15. #Hashtags
• Think of hashtags as bookmarks
with a ~2-week shelf life
• Emergent – not sanctioned or
issued by decree
– folksonomy vs. prescriptive
vocabulary
• Syntax: add # and then some
text (no spaces/punctuation) –
all it takes to make a hashtag
• Useful for linking groups of tweets together
– e.g.: #BlogChat or #MSPradio or generic trending topics ,
or, following all the happenings at an event or a tradeshow
• Start a new #hashtag or search to see how an existing one has been
used
image source: author screenshots

16. #Hashtags – Dos and Don’ts
• Don’t use a hashtag that’s too
long
• Don’t use more than three in a
tweet
• This counts toward the 140-
character limit
• Do use a hashtag that makes
sense and is easy to use
image source:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/27/hashceratops-
aims-to-formally-add-place-tagging-to-the-twitter-
stream/

17. How to Operationalize This: Some To-Dos
 Conduct an informal poll – ask a question, engage the audience
 Look at what @FollowContinuum is tweeting, and consider re-tweeting
it, or commenting (@-ing) those that interact with those tweets
 Use @replies to others in your stream
 Look at what the competition is doing and
comment on that (being professional and
courteous at all times)
Don’t simply tweet inane, mundane information. Make it valuable. Share
what you are reading, what excites you, what is it about the event you
are attending that is interesting.
Aim for a minimum of one quality tweet per day
“Twitter is a live wire,
unraveling the ‘now’ Web and
surfacing the thoughts,
events, breaking news,
reactions and conversations
that represent the focus of our
attention.”
quotation source: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/on-twitter-what-are-you-doing-is-the-wrong-question/

18. Dos and Don’ts in Social Media
 Reacquaint yourself with your company’s social media policy +
procedure, or code of conduct
 DO
 Be authentic – disclose who you are and for whom you work
 Be positive – this is a chance to engage with people; pretend it’s like
meeting them for the first time at a party
 Be respectful
 DON’T
 Lie or pretend to be someone else – authenticity matters
 Be negative with respect to your competition
 Disclose sensitive information, especially with respect to earnings,
acquisitions, or recent deals (unless pre-approved)
 REMEMBER
 Whether you think you are or you aren’t, you are always representing your
company’s brand

19. Summary
• You can say a lot in 140 characters
• Connecting to partners on Twitter ultimately will help you connect
with your customers and help them succeed
• It’s a tool, not a task
• Focus on quality, and create a cadence of communication that’s
right for you

20. BONUS CONTENT

21. • Twitter, tweet, send, post (v.) – to post a status update or share
something on Twitter
• tweet, post, update (n.) – a contribution on the Twitter platform, usually
text
• follower – someone who opts in to following updates from another
• locked – One of the states of a twitter account; i.e., not open, or
protected; this is not recommended
• @, @s, at, at replies, replies, mentions – when a post includes
another Twitter user; tagging them is know as an ‘at’ (@), and will alert
that user that they been mentioned in a status update
• DM or direct message – a private message exchange on Twitter from
one user to another; the person receiving the DM must be already
following the person who is sending it … and never DM spam – it’s just
not good practice
• RT or retweet – someone sharing an update and giving attribution (the
norm); similar to receiving and email message and forwarding it to a
broader list
• # or hashtag – a sign used with text and numbers (more on this later)
to group a message into a collective, or to give a tweet context
Vocabulary (keep this as a reference)

22. • https://business.twitter.com/twitter-101
• https://twitter.com/search-advanced
• http://www.gradontripp.com/2009/08/27/can-you-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-
umm-maybe/ - notes on why your bio and profile matter
• http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/retweetable-tweets/
• http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ - great
list of ideas
Extra Reading + Ideas
image source: author screenshots