PN Twitter Guide

8/14/2019 PN Twitter Guide

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The PN Guideto everything Twitter



What isTwitter?Technically Twitter is a microbloggingplatorm that asks its users to answerone simple question – ‘What are youdoing?’ – in 140 characters or ewer. Inreality it is ar more than that. Despiteits basic premise and the strict characterlimit, which means each message needs tobe concise, Twitter has developed into avibrant conversational tool.

Those who use it value it as a way torapidly share and discuss inormation,opinions, news and content with a wide-ranging group o ollowers. Businessesare using it as way o extending theircustomer service, keeping interested partiesup to date on their latest news and givingexclusive deals to their Twitter ollowers.

The benets o using Twitter are obviousor personal use but many companies arealso using Twitter in a variety o ways.Twittter can be used to:

• Complementexistingcustomerservice

• Buildrelationshipsandnetworks

• Directpeople’sattentiontogoodthings

• Listentowhatpeoplearesayingaboutyou – both good and bad

• Respondtocriticismandpraise

• Breaknewsfasterthanothersources

• Conductsurveys

• Helpwithbusinessdevelopment,ifyour prospects are online

• Createabackchannelateventsforinstant eedback



Types o update@RepliesTwitter messages can be addressed to aspecic person by using the @ symbolalong with their name.

Example:“@porternovelliHey!What’sallthe uss about this Twitter?”

Itisthe@Repliesfeaturethathasenabled Twitter to become primarily aconversation tool. There are three settingsfor@RepliesforwhenyouuseTwitterviathe webpage which can be ound underthe notices tab on the account settingspage. You can chose to:

Seethe@Repliestotheonlypeopleyouare ollowing - this means you will only

seean@Repliesinyourtimelineifyouareollowing both the person sending and theperson receiving the message. This is thedeault setting or Twitter.

Oryoucanseeallthe@Repliesfromthepeople you are ollowing, even i they aredirected at people you are not ollowing.

Oryoucantakeoutall@Replies rom your timeline, which means youwould never a see a reply rom anyoneyou are ollowing.

It is also worth noting that the Twitterwebinterfaceonlypicksup@Repliesintended or you i they are at thebeginning o the message.

Direct messagesTwitter’s ‘DM’ unction communicatesprivate messages between users. Thesemessages are sent to the recipient’s directmessage inbox and are not published tothe Twitter stream or everyone else tosee. You can send a DM to anyone whoollows you but you cannot send a DM

to a person you ollow, unless they alsoollow you back. This is a measure put inplace by Twitter to try and prevent usersbeing spammed.

Example: “d porternovelli So can youtell me o the record how to use theDM unction?”

GettingstartedSigning up or an account is simple andakes two minutes. Simply visit

http://twitter.com and click the ‘join theconversation’ button. You will then beasked or a username, your real name andemail address. Once these are suppliedyou’re ready to start tweeting.

There are several dierent ways to postupdates to your Twitter prole. You canpost updates directly rom the Twitterwebsite or you can also post to yourTwitter prole using a mobile phone or athird party application. While unctionalityo the Twitter website is quite basic, oneo the reasons or its success so ar is thatit allows sotware developers to createthird-party clients, such as Twhirl andTweetdeck, which can be used to reneand aid your Twitter use. There are alsodierent types o update that you canmake, depending on whether you aretalking generally, responding to one ormore people or sending a private message.



Who seeswhatDirect messages can only be read by therecipient and the person who sent it. Itwill appear under the sent tab o the directmessagepage.@RepliesandRetweetscanbe read by all your ollowers and will alsoappear on the public timeline, unless yourupdates are protected. All public messagesare ully searchable.

Twitter does allow you to protect yourupdates i you so wish, which you canselect by ticking the ‘select my updates’tab at the bottom o the account page.Protected updates do not appear in thepublic timeline and people will have torequest your approval to ollow you. Onlyonce you have approved their requestwill your updates show in their timeline.

As Twitter is a highly social tool, we donot recommend protecting your updates,except in special circumstances.

Unlike other social networks, such asFacebook, riendship is not automaticallyreciprocal on Twitter. It is entirely possibleor you to ollow people who don’t ollowyou and vice versa.

FriendsFriends are people you have chosen toollow. Although a ew users protecttheir updates, meaning you need tosend a request, this does not need tobe reciprocated in order or you to seetheir updates.

FollowersFollowers are people who have chosen toollow you. Again, they can do so even i you do not reciprocate.

BlockIt is possible to prevent a user romreceiving your tweets by blocking them.When you block someone, you will stopollowing them and they will be removed

rom your ollowers list. They will still beable to see your prole, unless you haveprotected your updates, and they will alsobe inormed that they have been blocked i they try to ollow you again.

Retweets a riend ‘tweets’ something you wanto share with your ollowers, you canretweet’ it. This simply means copyingheirupdateandputting‘RT’infront

o it along with their username. You canretweet to share something interestingwith ollowers, or as a avour to theoriginal poster. So i Porter Novelli postsomething you want to share, you could

retweet something like this:

“RT@porternovelliWorkingonanewblogpostaboutsocialmediaandPR.Thoughts?”

Hash tagsYou might occasionally see the # symbolin some people’s messages ollowed byastringofletters,suchas#MWC09or#UKsnow. These allow people to trackconversations around an event, such asMobileWorldCongressorthesnowstorms that hit the UK in early February2009,withoutneedingtofolloweveryonetakingpartintheconversation.Hashtagconversations can be tracked by usingTwitter’s search page.



Gettingmore out o

TwitterWhile Twitter is a basic service, there is awide range o third-party applications andools that make it easier to manage your

Twitter presences and get more out o theentire Twitter experience.

As mentioned previously, you can makeupdates rom your mobile phone; all youneed to do is click on Settings on yourTwitter homepage and then Devices toregister your mobile number. You will begiven a number to which you can sendyour tweets.

Twhirl (twhirl.org) is a desktop clientwhich enables you to post rom yourdesktop without visiting Twitter. Twhirls useul because incoming tweets popup in the corner o your screen, so youdon’t have to actively check or updates.t also allows control o multiple Twitter

accounts. This is useul i you controleveral company- related accounts or

dierent product groups, or example.

Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.com/beta/) isanother popular desktop application thatenables users to group their messages intotopic or group-specic columns, giving agreater overview o tweets. There are threedefaultcolumns-AllTweets,@Repliesdirected to you and Direct Messages.Additional columns can be created usingthe group, search and replies buttons. Thecolumns automatically update, makingit easier to track all relevant messages.Tweetdeckalsotracksany@Replies,eveni your username appears in the middle o the message and not at the beginning.

There are a multitude o applications thatwill enable remote access to Twitter, suchas Tweetie or the iPhone and Twitterberryor Blackberry users.

Twittereed (twittereed.com) is a useultool i you wish to use Twitter to promotecontent that is being published elsewhere,such as the company newsroom or blog.It can be congured to automatically tweetaccountupdatesfromanyRSSfeedyouchoose to share.

Tweetlater (tweetlater.com) allows youto set up tweets and queue them up orpublication at a specic time. This is useuli you wish to break news on Twitter butkeep to an embargoed time. Tweetlatercan also be set up to automatically ollowanybody who chooses to ollow you. I your Twitter account proves to be popular,this can save lots o administration time.

It is also possible to set up auto-repliesand auto-DMs using Tweetlater, as wellas to opt out o receiving auto-DMsrom other users.Visit http://twitter.com/optmeout

or instructions.

There are several tools that will givecomparable statistics on your Twitterusages; Mr Tweet (mrtweet.net) does this,as well as recommending good people oryou to ollow and other relevant users.

Other web sites that provide statistics andrankings are Twittercounter(www.twittercounter.com/) andTwitterholic (twitterholic.com/).

One o the biggest benets o Twitter isthe ability to listen to the real thoughtsand opinions o real people. Twitter’sown search unctionality (search.twitter.com) can be used to identiy basic levels o sentiment as well as nd relevant resultsor your search terms.

Twilert (twilert.com) provides updatesby email on your chosen keywords.WhileTwitter is a text-only medium, you canshare images by using Twitpic (twitpic.com), which posts pictures to Twitter,viaashortenedURL.Peoplecanthencomment on your pictures. Uploads can be

done directly on the Twitpic web site or byemailing rom a phone. Several third-partyapplications, such as Twhirl, also supportTwitpic unctionality.

Another useul tool is Twitpoll (twitpoll.com) which is a un way o gettingsnapshot opinions rom your ollowers.I your poll is interesting enough, it mightget retweeted to a wider audience.



Overviewo tools

Top tips• Ashortusernameisbetteras

this makes it easier or people toretweet your messages

• Makesureyouhaveabioasthishelpspeople to decide whether to ollow you– or not

• Makesureyouhavearelevant picture – a company logo works orcorporate accounts; or a personalaccount, a closely cropped image o your ace is best

• Whereapplicableyoushouldincludeyour company details in your bio

• Alwaysusedisclosurewhereappropriate – example: “I think PorterNovelliisthebestPRagencyever(disclosure – I work or Porter Novelli)”

• UseanURLshorteningserviceto tame lengthy links – such as tinyurl.comor bit.ly/

• Don’tjustpromoteyourselforyourown stu

• Don’texpectimmediateresults

• Youdon’thavetoreadorreplytoeverysingle tweet

• Rememberthateveryoneuses Twitter in a dierent way and ordierent reasons

• Avoidspammingyourfollowerswith

multiple sel-promoting updates

• Usingauto-respondandauto-DMtoolsis rowned upon as they are impersonaland increasingly employed by spammers

TweetdeckTwhirlTweetlaterWeb InteraceMr TweetTwitterholicTwittereedTwittercounterTwilertTwitpic

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Porter Novelli’s DigitalCommunicationsFrameworkoers you a a way to use Twitterand other online services, toolsand apps to support yourcommunication activities.

We have our stages: listen, respond,infuence and enlist

ListenWe help you listen to your stakeholdersand customers, showing you what’s beingsaid, where, when and by whom. Wediscover who the key voices are in theconversations that surround your brand,products and services, and help youunderstand how they relate to each otherand where they sit in the conversation.

Our benchmarking service will showyou where you are placed compared to

your competitors and will identiy newareas o opportunity.

RespondOnce you know how to listen, you’reready to respond to both on and ofineissues. Our platorms and processeswill help you to respond quickly andeectively and show you how to integratedigital channels into your issues and crisismanagement planning.

InfuenceThe next step is to take part in theconversations that surround your brand,products and services. We’ll advise oncreating the content that will be pickedup by the wider web and understandingcontent planning, repurposing andchunking. You’ll understand how contentand search work together, and how andwhere to seed conversations with newinormation. We can also create blog andsocial media outreach programmes.

EnlistOnce you’ve learnt to listen, respond

and infuence, you can start to enlist.We’ll help you engage with, anddevelop, consumer advocacy andco-creation programmes, and advisehow best to harness employee/corporateblogging eorts.



• BloggingServices

• CrisisBlogsandPaidSearch

• CustomerAdvocacyProgrammes

• EmailNewsletter/ListManagement

• Event-BasedProgrammes

• Internal&EmployeeRelations

• OnlineCommunityRelations

• OnlineCrisisandIssuesPlanning

&Training

• OnlineInuencerMapping/Evaluation

• OnlineInuencerEngagement

• ResponsePolicy&Training

• Seeding,Distribution,Link-building

• SEO&eDMPressRelease

• SocialMedaNewsroom

• SocialMediaCustomerRelations

• SocialMediaMonitoring

• SocialMediaPolicy&Training

Our digitalservices

include:



For urther inormation aboutPorter Novelli or our digital

capabilities, please contact:

Mary BakerDirector, Porter [email protected]+44(0)2078532209directline +44(0)7720277139mobile +44 (0)20 7853 2222 switchboard

Kerry GaneyVP, Digital [email protected]+44 (0)20 7853 2248 direct line+44(0)7720277169mobile +44 (0)20 7853 2222 switchboardwww.Twitter.com/kerrymg

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