This document provides an introduction to using Twitter for business purposes. It discusses what Twitter is, who uses it, how businesses can benefit from it, and tips for getting started and using common Twitter terminology and tools. The presentation recommends businesses build connections, promote events, engage in customer service and use hashtags, retweets and lists to participate in conversations on Twitter.

1. Twitter For Business An Introduction

2. Welcome to Twitter for Business hosted by the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership - @k_chamber #knoxbiz11

3. Today’s Plan: A Basic Intro to the World of Twitter What Is Twitter? Why Twitter for My Business? Getting Started Following and Followers Twitter tools, apps, and account managers Learning to Speak “Twitter” Useful Tips and Sites Advice from Other Twitter Users

4. What is Twitter? Originally defined as a “microblogging” site A service for sharing & collecting news, data & information A conversation hosting service (“mega-chat”) A one-to-one and one-to-many communications system A real time messaging and networking system

5. Who is using Twitter? 2010 Study by Pew Research Center: 8% of Americans using the Internet use Twitter Median age is 31 (Facebook is 27) College-educated & women more likely than average to use African-American & Hispanic use disproportionate to average percentages Urban residents twice as likely to use as rural residents 76% of Twitter users access the Internet wirelessly Above average consumers of news via mobile

6. Who is using Twitter? Other information on Twitter users: (source: Chirp, April 2010) 106 million registered users Gaining approximately 370,000 new users per day Users send 90 million tweets per day Twitter receiving 180 million unique visitors per month 75% of Twitter traffic from outside Twitter.com

7. What are they talking about? According to the Pew Research Center: 72% post updates on personal life, activities, & interests 62% post work-related updates 55% share news stories links 53% “retweet” other people’s material 40% share photos 28% share video 24% tweet their location

8. …and some do tell us what they had for lunch.

9. Why Twitter for My Business? Build business connections Event promotion Media outreach Real time communication with customers and vendors Customer service Employee recruitment Prospecting Tracking industry news Competitive research Search engine optimization

10. Let’s Get Started Twitter.com

11. Sign Up

12. Your Profile…Be Yourself Don’t make users guess who you are… Choose a name that reflects you or your business Include relevant keywords in your bio Include a photo Include your location and a web link

13. Following and Followers Begin your experience by searching for people to follow: Twitter’s “Find Friends” can search your email and LinkedIn connections Use search.Twitter.com to search for people talking about specific keywords Use Twitter services such as twellow.com and tweepz.com Look for competitors Search followers of other users Follow a user’s list

14. Twitter Tools, Apps, and Account Managers Twitter can be used through multiple services: Smartphone apps (e.g., Hootsuite, Seesmic, Twitter, Plume) Desktop dashboards (e.g., Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic) Can also set up account to “tweet” via standard texting The type of tool/app/account manager you use will evolve with your use of Twitter. Feel free to experiment to find the tool that fits your use and needs best.

15. Learning to Speak “Twitter” Source: Scott Hampson (Flickr)

16. Twitter Vocabulary Tweet – a message or status update on Twitter Mention – a Tweet directed to or mentioning you, includes your Twitter account name (e.g., @yourname) Reply – a Tweet from you directed to a particular user, begins with user’s account name (e.g., @myfriend) DM – Direct Message, a back channel communication to a Twitter user out of the public eye. RT (Re-Tweet) – A method of repeating a Tweet from another user and crediting the original sender # (Hashtag) – Use of the pound symbol is known as hashtagging. A hashtag includes the symbol followed by a word. Often used to connect tweets from a live event or to group tweets from a variety of people on a single topic.

17. Examples @abelincoln Have you decided what you’ll say at #Gettysburg?

18. Examples Looking forward to hearing @abelincoln wax eloquently in Pennsylvania.

19. Examples RT @abelincoln Finished writing my speech. What do you think? http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=36

20. Twitter Vocabulary Special Notes for RT: When using the Retweet button on Twitter.com, the selected Tweet will be automatically retweeted to your followers, but you will not have the ability to add any additional comments. Many Twitter applications (such as Hootsuite and Seesmic) allow the user the option of adding comments (called “old style RT”) or retweeting in the format preferred by Twitter.com

21. Twitter Vocabulary Hashtagging: Hashtags are used for a variety of purposes. Live event blogging (e.g., #knoxbiz11) Linking tweets to trending topics (e.g, #lost, #giffords) Connecting tweets during Twitter chats (e.g., #smfastfwd) Humorously creating false categories Hashtags can be especially useful as search terms and monitoring tools with programs such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc., allowing the ability to follow all tweets using a designated hashtag.

22. More Twitter Vocabulary Tweetchat – a scheduled gathering of Twitter users to discuss a designated topic. Tweetchats use hashtags to identify conversations taking place during the chat session. Lists – A collection of Twitter users designated by a category of your choosing. A handy resource for following Tweets from people within a specific category or industry. Tweetup – An in-person gathering of Twitter users URL Shortener – A tool to reduce the size of link addresses in order to save characters for tweeting. Most well-known is bit.ly Fail Whale – Twitter is down. The fail whale is a cartoon Twitter posts when having service problems. Happily, the whale has not been seen much lately.

23. Some Popular Twitter Abbreviations OH – overheard NSFW – not safe for work FB – Facebook FTW – for the win IRL – in real life #ff – “Follow Friday,” a Twitter tradition of spotlighting other Twitter users you’d recommend your friends to follow.

24. Useful Tools and Sites business.twitter.com – An introduction to Twitter by the folks at Twitter. search.twitter.com – Twitter’s search engine Twellow.com – Find participating users by category and geography Listorious.com – Another great resource for finding people based on self-identified categories Twubs.com – a research resource for hashtags WTHashtag.com – a research resource for hashtags Twitpic – a picture sharing service for Twitter Bit.ly – the most widely-used URL shortener

25. Tweeting Tips Listen – follow along for a while to get used to the flow of conversations Share – share content of interest to your audience Ask – ask questions to get opinions and helpful information Link – share links to your own content and to other useful content Commit – devote some time everyday to jumping into the conversation.

26. Leaving the Nest Integrate Twitter with your website, blog, & other media Create a list: Customers? Vendors? Industry Media? Sales staff? Join a Twitterchat Attend (or organize) a Tweetup Research your competition

27. Some Advice from Twitter friends…

28. Some Advice from Twitter friends…

29. Some Advice from Twitter friends…

30. Some Advice from Twitter friends…

31. Some Advice from Twitter friends…

32. Slides from this presentation available @ http://www.slideshare.net/AckermannPR/twitter-for-business-6612858

33. Questions? Follow me & ask: @shanerhyne & @ackermann_pr or email: srhyne@ackermannpr.com