The document outlines best practices for using Twitter effectively for branding and engagement, emphasizing the importance of having clear goals and meaningful interactions. It provides tips on content strategy, audience engagement, and tools that complement Twitter, while also addressing common misconceptions about the platform. Additionally, it encourages brands to humanize their presence, utilize hashtags strategically, and focus on the quality of followers over quantity.

1. ROCK MY Making Your Tw eets Sing for your Brand LIVE Twitter Chat and Medianar™ January 28, 2009

2. How it Works Moderator will Tweet throughout Welcome message and 5 minutes for everyone to give introductions Tweet tip and related question to stimulate chatter Tip: Always have a plan and a purpose before tweeting. Q: Have you set goals for your tweets? Last 10 minutes of chat is Boast Your Best Practice All tweets should have #msimedianars in it Follow on twitterchat.com or search.twitter.com Look out for a recap blogpost on http://mstrategiesinc.typepad.com/m_musings

3. Misconceptions about Twitter Twitter is a platform to micro-blog all about your brand: FALSE Twitter is all about engaging with others and building relationships It is also about being helpful and sharing helpful content with others Twitter is simply another form of IM: Somewhat FALSE You could use it as such, but no one will think you mean business Engaging in brief exchanges is good, but must be meaningful Twitter’s business benefits are grossly over rated: FALSE If you follow some specific guidelines, Twitter can benefit your business in a relatively short amount of time. HOWEVER, real needle movement takes time and some nurturing

4. Tip #1: Party with a Purpose Twitter is fun and can seem like a big virtual party, and that’s all it is if you don’t have a plan. Example goals: Customer relations? Thought leadership? Brand awareness? Selling a product or service? Drive traffic to your content? Information/Alerts? Issues management? Knowing where you are going will help you plan your Twitter existence Plan your actions/tactics Understand what tools you need Exercise: State your Twitter goal in 140 characters or less.

5. Tip #2: Tweet more than “What Are You Doing?” Your Tweets should exist loosely within your industry or space and brand essence Your followers should be able to count on what you will and will not tweet You should also be sure to humanize your Tweets by sharing some glimpses of the person behind the profile Keep your tweets positive and remember the Golden Rule I have an account. Now what?

6. Tip #2: Tweet more than “What Are You Doing?” Your tweets should point to meaningful and useful content Share links that will interest your audience. Share insights, reactions or opinions Engage your followers on topics that interest them. Ask questions and ask for their insights and opinions Be sincere Don’t be a Twitter Narcissist! Exercise: Ever unfollow someone for a specific reason? What was it?

7. Tip #3: “Brands Cannot Live On Twitter Alone” Let’s face it, the secret to a successful Twitter is access and understanding of the incredible and FREE apps that complement the service. Get a tweet organizer Access tweet measures List in & leverage tweet directories Get a mobile client for your PDA Get a tweet manager and feed Engage a tweet monitor Look into a SM integrator Exercise: Name your favorite app and why…

8. Tip #4 Know Your Audience and Their Influencers Franchisee Demo: Male Skew, 28-45 Gen Xers Sweet spot: Male, 38 Income $250,000 Follow the personalities and peers they like Engage in the conversations that they are into Speak on topics that resonate with them Quote the experts they respect Drive audience from other SM sites YouTube, FaceBook Twitter, LinkedIn Second Life Internet Radio Zeroing in on your target’s influencers is key to successful Twittering Exercise: How will you engage your audience? Franchisee Psycho: Extroverted “Go-getters” Gamers/gaming enthusiasts OR Retail franchisees Very Educated

9. Tip #5: Engage Smart Strategies Tweet and Retweet Content from influencers meaningful to your audience Thank those who RT you Return the favor Search and Engage Search for terms relevant to the target Engage/follow and ask them to follow Listen for brand feedback #hashtag strategically #aterm to make it searchable Start an interest group Host chats Use the RSS feeds Subscribe to RSS feeds for relevant search terms to engage Proactively insert yourself into conversations w/strong call to action DM your followers from time to time because it makes them feel important and you seem thoughtful and approachable. Exercise: What tricks do you use to get what you want out of Twitter?

10. Example Brand on Engage Connect Provide Target Competitors/Other Brands Industry thought leaders Naysayers Subject Matter Experts Enthusiasts Media/Bloggers Opportunities for Content—tips/advice Resources—useful links Promotions/Contests Relationships Thought leadership—quoteable source Resource for answers One-to-one relationship building Chats on trends and issues Market-by-Market “Tweet ups” Client service Issues management (#) hash-tag interest groups Blog traffic and loyalists

11. The Follower Dilemma “ I see people with thousands of followers, how did they do that?” “ Am I a Twitter failure if I only have a couple hundred followers?” “ Is it quality over quantity?” @guykawasaki said in a recent blog post that 200 people who will do what you say is better than 10,000 who won’t. Ask yourself, what do you want your followers to do and how do you want to respond to your tweets and select your followers accordingly. It’s perfectly fine to unfollow for a good reason. Exercise: How will you move your followers to action?

12. Driving Traffic Give away FREE stuff! Do not protect your tweets. Popular Apps and Tools like Twellow and Tweetlater will not work if you do This makes your tweets searchable on the web CAUTION: ask @keyinfluencer why you should be careful what you tweet List in all Twitter directories Engage @MrTweet Participate in #chats and #followfridays Point all your SM platforms to Twitter

13. Quick Dos and Don’ts Do have your own dynamic content to drive your followers to Update everyday, frequently Connect with followers on other SM platforms and IRL (TweetUps) Don’t get carried away with the bots. Don’t just spew out your marketing messages and pitches Do be human—throwing in a random thought or something that you are doing will give you depth When you pitch, do make them trend or issues centric—de-emphasize the brand Do follow your followers back, especially if they are “on strategy” for your Twitter plan Do aim to have slightly more followers than those you follow—adds to Brand’s mystique Exercise: What are some of your dos & don’ts?

14. Brands that Rock on Twitter @Starbucks @RichardatDell @wholefoods @southwestair @JetBlue @donlemoncnn @barackobama @todayshow

15. Thank you for Joining Us Final 10 minutes “Best Practice Boast Up” Follow us @mstrategiesinc and @msimedianars to find out about the next LIVE chat. You’ve been a wonderful audience! Good night!

16. contact us © 2008, m strategies inc. dallas ׀ chicago ׀ atlanta MSI Dallas HQs 208 N. Market St. Suite 375 Dallas, Texas 75104 214.741.2100 MSI Chicago One Westbrook Corporate Center Suite 300 Westchester, Illinois 60154 708.449.7740 MSI Atlanta 400 Perimeter Terrace Northeast Suite 900 Atlanta, Georgia 30346 770.392.4241