Making Twitter Useful For Business

A Presentation Given By:

Twitter is a great tool for conversing, listening and monitoring . Claim your name and get in on the conversation today.

What Made You Sign Up For Twitter?

business.twitter.com

Why Everyone Should At Least Have a Twitter Account

• You should claim your brand real estate on the web• News breaks first on twitter before anywhere else• In an emergency/danger it’s the easiest way to stay

current with the situation and read what’s going on• The internet isn’t necessary to use it can receive &

send messages via SMS (Text) with only cell phone service. Short code (phone # to send/receive in the US is 404-04

• Ability to create a news feed for what’s important to you be it sports, politics, weather, etc

What Are You Going To Get?

“What’s in it for me?” is not the attitude for Twitter or business, instead think in

terms of what do you have to give, offer or share. This is social proof and is the new

internet currency. People will remember you for what you

know and what you share without charging them. Draw

people into your circle by offering valuable information about the things they want to

know.

“What’s in it for me?”

Setting Up Your Account• Name – Real name 20 Char, displayed on

profile. User Allowed 15 Characters for @(Handle) but less is better if you can do it without sacrificing brand recognition & that includes your own

• Location – be sure to add where you’re at. more apt to follow people in the local region.

• Add a short bio about you or your business. Give them a reason to be interested in you. Describe the benefits of your business & express your business personality. Allowed 160 characters to get it all in.

http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/2010/05/write-a-great-twitter-bio/

Good Step By Step Instructions:

• One more branding opportunity.• Choose a picture of logo that represents your business• I use a picture of me with the logo incorporated. I think people like to know

who they’re “talking” to and is better for engagement. Since we’re @SheratonNJShore I wanted to tie our proximity to the beach. (Gratuitous Props & Big thanks to @JerseyShoreTog for taking my Social Media pics!)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-twitter-background-photoshop/

Pictures & Profile Page

Avatar Size: Must be larger than 48K but less than 700k, a Square picture and 73 x 73 pixels formats the best.

Background: A custom Twitter background is only visible when someone visits yourProfile page. Having a professional looking background lends credibility but won’t be highly Visible so I wouldn’t sweat it too much. Using Photoshop find an image or put one together to upload. Create it with 2560px width x 1600px height

Sidebar Left: Many accounts take advantage of the sidebar real estate, if you want to also,a good size to stick to is 235px (w) and 700px (h)

Avatar or Picture Seen With All of Your Tweets

How Twitter Works

• When you follow people on Twitter you see their tweets• When people follow you, they see your tweets• A Tweet containing @youruser is a Mention• RT (ReTweet) someone and everyone following you sees

it just like you tweeted it• When a tweet starts with @anyname only you,

@anyname, and anyone following both of you will see it. • On occasion when the RTer wants everyone to see the

mention, it will look like .@ because the character in front makes it visible to everyone

Why Twitter Works For Small BizLocal angle — Social media’s greatest power is

when it is used in a way that is targeted and local. I could care less about a tweet from a

mega-brand, but I would certainly be interested to get to know a local shop owner in

a personal way.Here’s an example. I don’t follow Starbucks on Twitter and probably never will. However, I do

follow Brian Myers, the owner of JaVerde Coffee here in Knoxville. We became friends over Twitter. Although his shop is 15 miles

from my home, I go out of my way to support his small business entirely because of our personal Twitter connection. That’s how

business works!

My Local Angle Experience:While working at a hotel

& being very new to Twitter I saw the same face floating by in my

timeline. He owned a Limo company.Our guests were always requesting

transportation recommendations from Newark airport. It was a no brainer.I sent him a message using Twitter.

Bill Atkins of Red Bank Limo & I have co-marketed and are friends for over 2

years now.

http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/09/22/three-reasons-social-media-marketing-favors-small-businesses/

Why Twitter Works For Small Business

•Higher customer loyalty/number of visits

•Higher rate of spending

•Frequent customer connection

•A channel for customer service

•Emotional connection to the brand

•Source for new product ideas and customer polling

•Great way to network & find affiliate businesses

•Brand Monitoring, Competition Monitoring

Chris Brogan says, “Most people who see Twitter the first time either flat-out ‘get it,’ or they say, ‘why bother?’

Here’s what people miss.

They believe one should read every single update that rolls

across your screen of choice. Don’t. Just let it roll past like a stream.”

http://www.copyblogger.com/grow-business-twitter/

Who To FollowCompanies you

admire, Experts in your field, competitors

in your field, people from whom you think you can learn, affiliate

business that are related to yours and

can refer you

Fast Follow

Can I get updates from @Twitter without a Twitter account or associated Phone number?Absolutely! This is what Fast Follow is all about. It's a new way of receiving Twitter updates. Now you don't have to sign up or add your phone in order to receive updates!To get started, send:

Follow [username] to 40404 and you will start receiving tweets from that user on your device. Or on a computer click on the phone icon.

http://support.twitter.com/articles/218610-new-fast-follow

Why Twitter is the Best Social Media Platform for Listening

Real-time results. We've all heard examples of how breaking news spreads immediately on Twitter. Because of Twitter's real-time search engine, you can get a quick pulse of public opinion.

Wide reach. Twitter is useful to many different types and sizes of businesses.

Direct feedback. You hear what people are saying as they say it.

IF you’re listening you can also respond. Just responding and being available for questions, issues or even kudos can make a world of difference.

http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/192464

Keywords

For any part of your business it is important to know what keywords or words related to your business drive people that are searching to your website and other business connections. Ask your webmaster for a list of keywords associated with your website

Keywords are “Key” for a reason. Give yours some thought from a whole web perspective not just Twitter.

Take those Keywords and think of Twitter as your “Conversation Search Engine”.Use search.twitter.com

Hashtags #Think of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in search. {business.twitter.com/basics/glossary}

Use them to follow an event or trending topics

Gives a reason to follow what you’re doing

Also can be used to invoke #sarcasm

How to Make Twitter Useful• Take the accounts you follow and create a list

Click Follow

Click Here

Click Add to List

If you don’t have existing lists, click “Create a List” and add your new follow otherwise click on an existing one to add

Followers can fit into more than one of your lists so add them to multiple ones if it applies.

Creating Lists – They can be public or private. Others will not be able to see your private lists.Lists streamline the feed into focused areas based on whatever parameters you determine. I’ve made 2 private lists 1. for my competitive set and 2. for potential & actual customers.

What do they offer you by following them?

No bio, location, low # of tweets or

followersare good signs this may be a “bot” or bad follow

You Don’t Have to Follow Everyone that follows you….

asdfjbakjfkajhfkahfkjaf

asdfjbdsjhfkjadbcjdbcmnbcmzbcxmnzxbcmzbcmzmzbcmzbcmzbcakahfkjaf

sdhfksdfkaksjd

A low number oftweets, low Follow to

follower count are Probably bad follows.

Be sure to include yourlocation and good info &

links in your bio

Use a Twitter Client App

• Much easier to manage in a client app some good ones are TweetDeck, Hoot Suite & I prefer Echofon in my iPhone. Try a few out and pick the one that works best for you.

• I use Tweetdeck on my home computer. • At work I use HootSuite for my personal account and Tweet

Deck for my work accounts to keep them in separate apps so I (hopefully) don’t tweet from the wrong account.

• That’s what works best for me but you will arrive at your own personal preferences and they will probably be different than mine.

Set Your Lists Up As Column in TP Apps

Search for Related Key Words

Twitter Monitoring Tools

Twitter Monitoring Apps to Check OutMonitter : a dashboard like set up where you pick the keywords and it sets up in columns much like Tweetdeck

Twitter Analyzer: See how many of your followers are currently online, who retweets your messages, what people are writing about you, Twitter following stats, your tweeting habits

http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/192464

Tweeps: What do they tweet about? How much do they tweet? How social are they? Do they use hashtags? Share URLs?

Klout: I’d be remiss to not add this one. Many people want to knock it but to monitorYour effectiveness, reach and have an overall “grade” on what you’re doing.

Twitter Monitoring Apps

• While researching Monitoring Apps I came across TweetPsych via Social Media Today & this came up for me, @byouchah. Zoiks! I fancied myself an optimist, Twitter sees me as otherwise. Do I need to watch my “voice”?

Twitter Monitoring Apps for Smart Phones on the go!

EchofonTweetdeckTwitterHoot Suite

Which ones are your favorite?

It’s Another Way to Get People To Your Other Social Sites… Examples Being

Announce You Posted a Photo

Album on Facebook

Respond to Check-ins on Foursquare

Promote Your Latest

Blog Post

Tweet out links to

good reviews or ask for more

Find a Great Site or Article you

+1’d? Share it

Ask others to Connect with

you on Linked In

Posting Pictures

• People love to comment on pictures so it’s a great way to increase engagement.

• Fun way to share info on your business be it your employees, something new you’ve added or a sunset. Pictures are fun!

Picture Apps• Twitpic• Lockerz• Yfrog• Twitter: Share photos on Twitter by including a photo in your

text message. It’s simple: just enter the text of your Tweet as you normally would, attach a photo to the message and send to Twitter with AT&T, Verizon Wireless and C Spire Wireless in the US

• Instagram: A fun app for iPhone users to add funky textures and tones to pictures. Create a business account & link to your Twitter account. Banana Republic does a fantastic job (IMHO)

Who to Follow – Who’s Here:

@avelient@mdfabs

@locallylove @prtips

@scortina @dcilea

@redbanklimo @screaminlunatic

@sheratonnjshore @byouchah