making sense of twitter
DESCRIPTION
Basic info and tips and tricks for those who are new to Twitter. Best practices for Twitter for business.TRANSCRIPT
Making Sense of Twitter
a.k.a. #WTF is Twitter?
June 12, 2013
Why me?• I initiated UDM’s social media presence almost 5
years ago*
• I am the founder and cohost of #TCMParty, one of the most popular chats on Twitter.
• Twitter is my true social media love.
• Follow me: @Paula_Guthat
So...what is Twitter?
A microblogging service which allows users
to post updates of 140 or fewer characters.
Why Twitter?
✴ Are people using this platform to talk about your brand, your industry, or your competition?
✴ Does this platform align with your demographic?
✴ Is there an opportunity to tell your brand’s story in a new or unique way on this platform?
✴ Do you have the resources to maintain a robust presence on this platform?
✴ Does this platform logically !t in with your existing digital ecosystem?
any social network
*Things to think about BEFORE you join
PR Daily, 5/21/13
Why Twitter?
✴ What are you trying to accomplish by engaging on [any platform]? In other words, what are your goals? Examples:
✴ Awareness – visibility
✴ Driving traffic to your....
✴ blog
✴ online store or bricks & mortar location
✴ Facebook page
any social network
Things to think about BEFORE you join
✴How will you measure it?
What’s so great about Twitter?
✴ It is very well-suited to mobile devices.
✴Of the “major” social networks, it’s the easiest one to !nd and consistently connect with your target market.
✴News breaks on Twitter !rst.
✴ It’s the great leveller.
Twitter terms, part 1• “Follow” – you’ve opted to see all of a person’s or a
company’s tweets in your timeline except those replies where you don’t follow both parties
• “Tweet” – Also called an update. Public message to EV-eryone that is following you.
• “Mention” or “@mention” – Public message to speci!c person/people
• Add 1 character before an @name and that tweet will show in all your followers’ timelines, not just that person
• “Direct Message” – Private message to a speci!c person; you can DM anyone who follows you
• “Interactions” – Your mentions, plus follows and favorites
• “Retweet” or “RT” – Posting someone else’s tweet to your followers
• “Modi!ed tweet” or “MT” – Some Twitter apps allow you to edit a tweet before retweeting. When you do this, change the “RT” to “MT” to indicate there have been edits made to the original tweet.
• “Timeline” – the running list of tweets and RTs from everyone you follow except those replies where you don’t follow both parties.
Twitter terms, part 2
What is a #hashtag?• A word or phrase added to a tweet so that
it will show up in searches
• If the word is in the tweet, you don’t need to repeat it for it to appear in search results
• Use a hashtag whenever possible, but 2 hashtags per tweet is usually enough
• Can also be used as a comment on the tweet’s content. Use judiciously for business, if at all.
How to tweet like this
not this
Getting started Which hashtags to track?
Who to follow?✴LISTEN before diving in
✴Keywords and searches
✴Make Twitter lists – they can be private
✴Begin by offering interesting content & starting conversations
✴Also follow a few new accounts every week
Twitter for business• Optimize your pro!le
• Continue to listen (FREE market research)
• Mindfully promote your product/service ()
• Develop relationships with customers, business partners and media by offering helpful, interesting content and conversation
• Customer service
• Having fun
Twitter for everyone• Experiment & observe to determine how
many tweets is “too many”
• The most interaction occurs early in the week between 10 a.m. & 4 p.m. Eastern. Take your followers’ time zones into account.
• Schedule sparingly
• Ideal tweet length is no more than120 characters to allow for RTs. Less is better!
• Find your RTs and thank people for them
• Look at what people are not saying
not likely
Free/low-cost Twitter tools
HootSuite, SproutSocial, Sendible, Buffer
www.whentotweet.comwww.twittercounter.comwww.followercheck.com
mobile: Tweetbot, HootSuite, SproutSocial
Twitter Analytics
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