THE ART OF TWITTER

TWITTER VOCABULARY

• TWITTER: A Web 2.0, microblogging application• TWITTERERS: People who use twitter• TWEET: Small 140 letter updates that generally

answer the question “What are you doing?”• RETWEET: Reposting a tweet to share with others

while still giving credit to original author• TRENDS: Top ten topics found amongst tweets are

posted on the site and can be easily navigated

HASHTAGS & WHAT THEY’RE GOOD FOR!

Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalog and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword.

HOW CAN THIS TOOL

BE UTILIZED BY

COMPANIES?

TWITTER AS A BUSINESS PLATFORM

Companies build brands Marketing or public relations channel Enhance or extend company’s reputation Connect to countless valuable people and companies

Do research People tweeting about their daily habits stand as a free

focus group on a massive scale Quick feed-back from customers

Send information to customers Announcing sales, events, store hours Communicate future projects, micro press releases

Conduct e-commerce Create communities for users

Tightly tie audiences to the business with use of social networks

Customer support option

STARBUCKS

Among the early adopters of social media as an effective campaign platform

STARBUCKS

•Free Pastry Day• Offered a free pastry with any purchase of a beverage which had a

large impact on in-store lines as well as generated internet chatter• Made Starbucks the top trend which implies that nearly 1% of total

tweets mentioned the brand• Generated nearly $500,000 in additional revenue that day• Increased Twitter followers by nearly 250,000 in one week

•@StarbucksJobs• Twitter account specifically relating to job offers at Starbucks

•Customer Support• Answers many users questions regarding;

• Store hours, nutrition information, new flavors, deals, events• Helps customers find resolutions to their problems• Replies to mentions of Starbucks (by use of search• Uses Twitter to ask customers about ideas and to highlight

promotions

MARKETING CAMPAIGN:DISPLAYED POSTERS IN MAJOR CITIES AND CHALLENGED

PEOPLE TO BE THE FIRST TO FIND AND TWEET A PICTURE OF THE POSTER

THIS GENERATES INTERNET BUZZ & AD RECOGNITION

NON-PROFITS ON TWITTERTwitter provides:• a free easy-to-use interface• a potential to reach a vast audience• the ability to engage in conversation with people•the ability to create an alternative subscription source for consumers•Feedback and support

NON-PROFITS ON TWITTER #Beatcancer

Instigated by Beat Cancer Everywhere, a site that works to raise money for breast cancer research

Became the largest social mass media message distributed in a 24 hour period

For each #beatcancer recorded, eBay & MillerCoors donated 1 cent to breast cancer research

Received 209,771 mentions in a single day The campaign set a newly-developed world record for

online impressions and raised over $70,000

@Drew Campaign to raise money for LIVESTRONG auctioning

the Twitter name @drew Drew Carey announced he would donate 1 million

dollars if he can reach 1 million followers by the end of the year

WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL NETWORKING

The political use of Twitter can be a powerful force for change and for helping the government keep their pulse on the American public.

OBAMA’S USE OF TWITTER

•By use of microblogging, President Barack Obama and colleagues were able to rally 315,000 people to call into Congress to voice their support of health care reform in just one single day.

•Obama also held a live webcast to answer questions for thousands of supporters.

•This call to action proves how Obama was able to reach thousands of voters, even some who don’t generally engage in the political progress by use of Twitter.

WHAT ARE SOME POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS WITH COMPANIES USING

TWITTER?

BE AWARE

Make sure to be aware that giving your customers a voice doesn’t mean you’re going to like what they say

A company has to keep certain things in mind when they tweet that an individual may not (they have their own rules of conduct)

The danger is that the Twitter community could turn against a marketer viewed as being too crass by being relentlessly self-promoting

Twitter is self-governed by its members, and companies must take that into account as they join the service

Ex: Starbucks Campaign Hijacked• On a blog post published at the anti-

Starbucks website Brave New Films created, people were encouraged to take pictures of themselves in front of Starbucks stores holding signs targeted at the company’s “anti-labor practices” and then upload them via Twitpic with the same hashtags Starbucks had predetermined for their campaign

SOURCES

http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands/ http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1704471/announcing_white_house_

joins_obama.html?cat=15

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/media/19starbux.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1901188_19012

07,00.html

http://maverix.typepad.com/brandingunbound/2009/05/starbucks-twitter-campaign-hijacked-by-activists.html

http://bloggasm.com/anti-starbucks-filmmakers-hijack-the-coffee-companys-own-twitter-marketing-campaign

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/20/small-business-profile-social-media-can-be-an-if/

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ http://mashable.com/2009/09/04/twitter-hashtags-business/ http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/02/26/17-ways-to-use-twitter-fo

r-business-and-some-not/

http://www.copyblogger.com/grow-business-twitter/ http://www.copyblogger.com/go-viral-on-twitter/