This document provides guidance on using Twitter effectively for businesses. It outlines key Twitter statistics, best practices for identifying influencers, creating strategic content, managing communities, using third party tools, running contests and campaigns, and measuring success. Engagement is emphasized as critical for gaining customers and influencing through tweets, images, hashtags and questions. Traditional public relations is also discussed in relation to collaborating with journalists active on Twitter.

1. Beyond Hashtags:
How to engage influencers and gain customers in 140 characters
for
Anna Ruth Williams, Founder + CEO @annaruth
@ar_ _ pr #makenews

2. The World of Twitter
• Twitter is the 2nd most popular social network in the US
• 42% of Twitter users learn about products and services
via Twitter. (via Convince and Convert)
• 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or
products on social networks. (via Edison)
• 67% of Twitter users are far more likely to buy from the
brands they follow on Twitter. (via MediaBistro)
• 70% of small businesses are on Twitter.
(via MediaBistro)
• 85% of followers feel more connected with a small
business after following them. (via Twitter)

3. Brand Accounts:
Getting Started

4. Identifying & Engaging Key
Influencers
• Use Klout to identify top influencers
for certain keywords (e.g.
ecommerce, retail, makeup etc.)
• Find the Twitter handles for your key
media outlets and bloggers
• Search hashtags of keywords your
potential audience may use & follow
those users
• Create lists to organize and
showcase influencers
• Engage with the people on those
lists: reply, retweet & share

5. Creating Strategic Content
• Create Content Categories
• This will help you identify what users are
responding to
• Percentage of each category will vary
from network to network
• Establish a Content Calendar
• Helps you PLAN AHEAD
• Think about holidays, awareness months
etc.
• Can be weekly, bi-monthly or monthly or
whatever works best for you.
• Tie in real time postings as well

6. Community Management
Best Practices
• Tie your page to your brand:
Picture, Bio, Background
• Remember anything you post can be
seen by your followers as well those as
outside of your community.
• Use plain English/avoid jargon
• Create and identify your own unique
hashtag
• Create a customer service strategy and
social media policy to minimize liability
and retain your reputation

7. Community Management Best Practices
• Be Consistent and Respectful
• Have a strategy when it comes to
responding to all tweets
• Only delete a member’s post if it is
abusive
• Engage with your followers
• Say thank you, ask & answer
questions, respond to mentions
• Fill posts with pictures and videos
that will catch your followers’
attention (they show up in the
feed)
• Identify and follow keywords that relate
to your brand

8. Third Party Platforms
• Hootsuite
• TweetDeck
• LaterBro
• SocialOomph
• SproutSocial
• Argyle Social
• Buffer
• Spredfast
These sites make managing multiple social
media accounts a breeze. Schedule tweets
in advance, monitor your engagement and
more. Plus, they’re user friendly!

9. Hootsuite: Display of Feeds
SproutSocial: Display of Mentions

10. Engagement,
Engagement,
Engagement.

12. Event #Hashtags
Hosting an Event?
BEFORE
• Create a short, generic & strategic hashtag
EARLY
• Spread the word!
• Start promoting the hashtag in advance
• Tell people what it is & ask them to use it
• Post the hashtag on your
website, advertising, email
signature, literally EVERYWHERE
DURING
• Have the hashtag displayed on a
projection
• Assign someone to be in charge of social
coverage
• Thank attendees, respond to comments and
leverage the real-time power of Twitter!
AFTER
• Continue coverage by posting pictures &
videos with the hashtag
• Engage with attendees about what they
thought
Website Homepage
Using Hashtag EARLY
Continuing Convo After

13. Event #Hashtags
Attending a Tradeshow/Event?
BEFORE
• Look for the official hashtag on the
event’s social media pages
• Send a tweet using the hashtag
• Say how excited you are/what you’re
looking forward to
DURING
• Live tweet during the show/event with
the hashtag
• Post photos, ask questions, encourage
visitors to stop by
AFTER
• Tweet a thank you to the host
• Relationship building!
• Writing a blog about your experience?
Tweet it with the hashtag
• Your company will appear in the live stream
and increase your presence.

14. Twitter Ad Campaigns
PROMOTED ACCOUNTS
• Show up on side of timeline
• One of the quickest ways to gain
advocates & influencers
• Reach more followers that are likely to
be interested in your brand
• Target by:
Interest, Geography, Gender
PROMOTED TWEET
• Show up in a user’s timeline
• Regular tweets with a bonus of
reaching potential followers
• Target by:
Keywords, Interest, Gender, Geograph
y, Device, Similarity to Existing Users
• Offline sales increased by 29% when
using a promoted tweet. (via Hubspot)

15. Contests: Rules, Ideas, Strategies
- Can rapidly grow your fan base
- Inexpensive
Regulations
• Discourage creation of multiple
accounts
• Discourage posting same tweet
over & over
• Ask users to include an @reply so
you can see all entries
• Hashtags need to be relevant to
the topic
• Read and Review Twitter Rules

16. Contests: Rules, Ideas, Strategies
Four Different Types of Contents
1. Creative Answer
• Contestants write creative answer to the question
asked in certain number of words
2. Sweepstakes
• Winners are chosen at random or through lucky
drawing
• RT to win
3. Photo Contest
• Send in a photo that coordinates with the theme
4. Question and Answer
• Post question – winner is the person with the
fastest answer, or most accurate answer
Make sure to brand your contest. People need to
know it is coming from you.
Your current followers love you, don’t necessarily
focus on gaining new ones.
HAVE FUN!

17. Measurement:
Be Strategic

18. Measuring your Success
Tip 1: When you post matters
• Engagement rates for brands are
17% higher on Saturday and Sunday
• On weekdays tweets during "busy
hours" performed best
• 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Tip 2: How often you post matters
• Best number of tweets per day: 4
Tip 3: What you tweet matters:
• Tweets with images get almost 200%
more engagement
• People are 21% more likely to
respond to questions.
• Tweets with links are retweeted 86%
more
• Engagement is higher for tweets with
less than 100 characters

19. Measuring your Success
Set up a system to track your
results: weekly, monthly, bi-
monthly.
Using 3rd parties to track success.
• Sites like
Hootsuite, SproutSocial, etc. can
show you the number of
retweets, and mentions you
receive.
• Identify what’s working and
what’s not.

20. Traditional PR & Twitter
Collide

21. Don’t forget your personal
brand…
80% of a new
company’s value is its
CEO.
Make sure your brand’s
leadership is active and
authentic on Twitter.

22. Make PR Reach Further
60% of journalists are on
Twitter (92% of them are on
LinkedIn).
For every story they
write, journalists visit 2.6 social
media channels

23. Questions?

24. Contact:
Offices in Atlanta Tech Village
and
Launch Pad New Orleans
855.300.8209 | arpr.co
annaruth@arpr.co
linkedin.com/company/arpr
facebook.com/annaruthpr
@ar__pr