twitter

Twitter

Housekeeping

• This presentation is available online.

• This presentation is interactive, you will need your phone

• We will be available for questions afterwards

Win a Free Book

• We will watch Twitter for the first message from this group.

• If you’re already on Twitter and you win, we’ll also give a book to the first NEW user.

Win a Free Book

• Send a text message to 40404 which says

“At #FBChamber Twitter talk from @lach & @coach4growth”– You will receive a reply from Twitter

• Reply with “Signup”– You will receive a reply from Twitter

• Reply with the username you want– You’re done!

Tribes?

• “Lasting and substantive change can be best effected by a tribe: a group of people connected to each other, to a leader and to an idea.”

• Everyone who played along gets a free copy of Seth’s newest e-book: “What matters now”

• Page 47, by Gary “Vay-ner-chuck” speaks about the importance of Social Media

Origins

• Founded in 2006

• Asked “What are you doing?”

• Informal and short, it lives between blog posts (informal, long) and emails (formal, long)

• Can be updated by phone, email, rss, web, Facebook, your thoughts…

Timeline

2006 20092007 2008 2010

40 Million!

Usage

• Twitter now has over 40 million users– Would be the most populous state in the US

• Less than half of Twitter users use Twitter.com

• If Twitter were a country, it would be the 32nd largest… 10% more populous than Canada.

Demographics

How Twitter Works

How Twitter Works

• User signs up for Twitter via SMS or Web

• User posts updates

• Other users follow user to see her updates in their timeline

• Interconnected network forms of users following other users

• Each timeline is unique, based on who you follow

Tweet-speak

RT @reply #hashtag http://is.gd/12G56

@Mentions

• Mentions are designated with the at sign

• A mention is directed toward a particular user, but still public

• You can mention multiple users in a single post

• Short twitter names help you get mentioned more

RTRe-Tweets

• Re-Tweets are market with a “RT” and a mention of the Twitter user

• Re-Tweets are like forwards, they mention a user, but are displayed for your followers

• Keep your updates short if you want to get re-tweeted.

#Hashtags

• Categories are called “Hashtags”

• The pound sign is prefixed to a single word to create a tag

• The pound sign is called the hash mark in English, hence Hashtag.

• Hashtags were invented during the San Diego wildfires

Tiny Urls

• Because of the character restriction, users had to get creative

• Services convert long urls to short urls• http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20

09/dec/15/three-taxing-temptations/ becomeshttp://bit.ly/70djLG

• Use bit.ly which provides performance reports and analytics

Tweet Shrinking

• Because you are limited to 140 characters, sometimes it is useful to shorten your tweets.

• ‘cause u r limited 2 140 chars, it’s useful 2 shortn ur tweets.

• TweetShrink.com will shorten for you• TweetDeck has shrinking built in• Avoid shrinking, be succinct instead

• Character limits make shortening necessary.

Twitter Talk

Social Media Ethos

• Communication needs to be– Direct– Transparent– Fast

• No more press-release-speak

• A headline is not a tweet

• It is up to you to be transparent

• Reply directly to conversations

Social Media Ethos

• Speak in first person

• Identify yourself

• Reply to conversations

• Don’t spam

• Contribute and promote

• Re-Tweet whenever you can

Rumor Control

• Engage directly

• Reply with facts

• Link to pertinent information

• Learn and use hashtags

• Keep your ear to the ground

Contest

Tweet whether you are in a popular or niche demographic for Twitter, tag

it with #demographics

Established Brands

Comcast

Starbucks

NASA

Ellen DeGeneres

Ashton Kutcher

FBC OEM

Emerging Brands

iJustine

Wait… what?

Who the heck is “iJustine?”

iJustine

• 300 page phone bill

• YouTube

• Twitter

• NPR

• ATT New billing format

Local Brands

Sugar Land Spec’s Coffee Groundz Fort Bend Rotary

Fort Bend ISD

39 News

Missouri City

Only Katy

St. Arnold’s

KTRK

KHOU

KPRC

Contest

•Follow Fort Bend county OEM (fbcoem) by tweeting “follow fbcoem”•Mention FBCOEM in a tweet about this seminar

Application for You

Application for Small Business

• “All things being equal, we prefer to do business with people we know, like, and trust.” - Bob Burg

• Everybody who is considering doing business with you has one question on the top of their mind…

• My primary goal as a business owner using Twitter is Social Capital!

Social Capital

Build Trust

Be Personable/Authentic

Create Community

Thought Leadership

Share Helpful Resources

Top of the Mind Awareness

Respectful Offers (90/10 Rule)

Business Benefits

• Generate leads (awareness, networking)

• Drive traffic to your website or blog

• Create better relationships with customers

• Locate resources/information

• Follow your competition/industry

• Conduct research/Find new ideas

• Create ad-hoc communities/promote live events/promote your customers (PR)

Leverage Lists

• Lists are groups of Twitter users• Lists are created by users• Lists can be followed, instead of following everyone in

the list• You can maintain a list of “customers,” people will want

to be on the list• You can maintain a list of SMEs in your industry which

customers will follow• You may get listed, allowing you to see how others are

categorizing you• You can follow SME lists to keep up on industry trends

– @Scobleizer/venture-capitalists

How to Be Interesting…

Two Types of Tweets:

1.Broadcast

2.Conversations

Use “broadcasts” to make sure the information you want to share gets across.

Use “conversation” tweets to turn those followers into a community.

How to Be Interesting…

• Link Tweet: “This is what I’m into now”• Classic Tweet: “This is what I’m doing now”• Opinion Tweet: “This is what I’m thinking now:• Mission Accomplished Tweet: “This is what I’ve

just done”• Entertainment Tweet: “I’m making you laugh”• Question Tweet: “Can you help me w/something?”• Picture Tweet: “Look at what I see” (twitpic)

Searching and Monitoring

• TweetDeck custom columns

• NutShellMail

• http://search.twitter.com

• Tag yourself

• Search for misspellings

• Reply to mentions

More Resources

Resources

• Mashable Twitter Guide Book– http://mashable.com/2009/08/05/twitter-guide-

book-download/

• Mashable’s Twitter Page– http://mashable.com/tag/twitter/

• Twitter in Plain English– http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

Resources

• WeFollow (Directory)- http://wefollow.com

• Mr.Tweet (Increase your followers)- http://mrtweet.com/

• TweetStats- http://tweetstats.com/

• BagTheWed (Twitter Tips)- http://bagtheweb.com/b/4QfhjBOseBAF

Twitter Applications

• Computer– TweetDeck

• BlackBerry– Open Beak

• iPhone– Tweetie

• Android– TwitDroid

Questions

Contact Us

Glenn Smith

The Growth Coach

Phone: +1 281 841-6680

Email: g.smith@thegrowthcoach.com

Web: http://www.thegrowthcoachhouston.com/

Lach Mullen

Fort Bend County OEM

Phone: +1 832 361-9978

Email: lachlan.mullen@co.fort-bend.tx.us

Web: http://www.fbcoem.org/

Bibliography

• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/10/the-more-followers-you-have-the-more-you-tweet-or-is-it-the-other-way-around/

• http://mashable.com/2009/11/04/twitter-lists-uses/ • http://gizmodo.com/5135117/iphone-twitter-app-battlemodo-best-and-worst-twitter-ap

ps-for-iphone

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justine_Ezarik• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population • http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009/02/twitter-2009-demographics-and-statistics/ • http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/