Slides for WorkplaceTrends "Social Media for Business" event, held in London on Wednesday 20 March 2013

1. pwcom.co.uk
March 2013
Effective use of Twitter for
Business
Paul Wilkinson - @EEPaul
(pwcom.co.uk Ltd)

2. Hello?
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3. • Who am I?
• Twitter adoption
• setting up and using Twitter
• who to follow and how to get followers
• Twitter tools
• “Twittiquette”
• simple monitoring and measurement
• Twitter ethics
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4. Who am I?
• author and technology consultant
• B2B PR professional since 1987
– in-house: Halcrow, Tarmac, BIW
– consultancy
(1998 - 2000, 2009 - date)
• Wikipedian (2003), blogger (2005)
and tweeter (2008)
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5. 5

6. c. 500m+ registered
accounts
• c. 28% 'active'*
• est. 250m 'active'
by end 2012
* Active = members who log in
at least once a month
Source: www.mediabistro.com
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7. • 400m
Tweets/day
(up from 2m/day in
2009)
• now (2013)
average
c. 4,600
Tweets/sec
• Peak
33,388/sec
(New Year's Day 2013)
Image courtesy of: Huffington Post
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8. • UK = 4th largest Twitter
population
• c. 32m Twitter accounts
(53% population)
• c. 11m active UK users
• 7% of Tweeters =
79% of UK Twitter traffic
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9. • Twitter use/growth strongly linked to UK
smartphone adoption (45+% own one)
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10. “Why?”
• engage in real-time online conversations
• expand range of communication tools
• join or open up new conversations
(new customers, projects, etc)
• improve networking
• extend reach of existing tools, networks
and content
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11. Source: Optify.net
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12. setting up and using Twitter
• Twitter - maximum limits ...
• 15 – characters in @username
• 20 – characters in real name
• 140 – characters in status update
• 160 – characters in profile
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13. 13

14. 14

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17

18. 18

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20. • who to follow and how to get followers
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21. Following people....
(step one)
Search by...
...real name ...category ...contact
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22. Following people....
(step two)
Follow friends' recommendations
• FollowFriday (#ff) …
Follow people who follow you
• Auto-follow? (suggest not)
• spam
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23. Getting followers....
(step one)
“Why would people follow me/us?”
• Be interesting
• Be useful
• Don't just broadcast
• Interact
• Shape expectations
– recent tweets
– landing page
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24. Getting followers....
(step 1.5)
Shape expectations:
recent tweets
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25. Getting followers....
(step 1.5)
Shape expectations:
landing page
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26. Getting followers....
(step two)
Highlight Twitter
account
• link from
website ...
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27. Getting followers....
(step two)
Highlight Twitter account
• link from website, blog, etc (and vice versa)
• on other social networks
• email footer, business card
• e-newsletters
• news releases
• printed collateral
• signage, event badges, etc
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28. Getting followers....
(step three)
Cultivate your online profile...
• tweet regularly
• Retweet (RT) regularly
• reply (it's about interaction)
• recommend others #ff
• use relevant #hashtags
• participate in relevant #tweetchats
• don't spam
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29. Twitter tools
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30. Twitter tools – why?
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31. Twitter tools - web
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32. Twitter tools
• at-a-glance “dashboard” view
• configure searches
• monitor lists
• manage multiple
Twitter accounts
• publish updates
to Facebook
• short URLs
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33. Twitter tools - mobile
• Full functionality
on smartphone
• add GPS location
• tweet photos
• Tweet from
multiple accounts
• Sometimes all at once!
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34. Simple monitoring
and measurement
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35. Simple monitoring
and measurement
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36. Simple monitoring
and measurement
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37. Simple monitoring
and measurement
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38. Good tweeting
• Beware:
– company and/or client
confidentiality
– copyright issues
– defamation
– privacy of individual
– bringing company into disrepute
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39. Good tweeting
• Avoid conflicts of interest
– Disclose client
relationships
– Clarify account
'managers'
• Consider disclaimers
• Above all: honesty and integrity
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40. Good tweeting
• Stay (mainly)
on-topic
• Keep it personal,
not corporate
• Tweet regularly
• Be responsive
• Think long-term
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41. Six minutes
31 January 2013
2.21pm - First tweet from @hmvtweets
2.21pm - First media RT
2.27pm - First RT by national journalist
2.36pm - ITVnews article published
2.51pm - c. 900 RTs
Data from PR Week, 22 Feb 2013
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42. Effective use of Twitter for
Business
Q&A
Thank you
Contact: Paul Wilkinson
Website: www.pwcom.co.uk
Tech blog: www.extranetevolution.com
PR blog: www.blog.pwcom.co.uk
Email: paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 8858 1104
mob: 07788 445920
Twitter: @EEPaul
http://www.google.com/profiles/paul.wilkinson19
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