THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF TWITTER

From SleepingLionWorkshops.com

TWITTER FACTS

Twitter was launched in 2008 Average age of Tweeters = 39 It is an OPEN network / micro-blogging site Micro-blog using updates of no more than 140

characters In theory, all updates are responses to the

question ‘What are you doing? / What’s happening?

WHAT IS TWITTER GOOD FOR?

Growing your network of influencers This is an ‘open’ network Expanded reach – anyone can follow anybody

Business conversations It’s a business channel allowing companies to engage with their

‘influencers’ (customers, stakeholders, ambassadors). It gives businesses the ability to monitor what people think about their

product, respond to customer requests, and make money from promotions! It’s a good tool for permission-based marketing

WHAT IS TWITTER GOOD FOR?

Breaking news and shared experiences It provides a real-time newspaper It has caused a shift towards content generated by the ‘public’ This includes emergencies, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, celebrity It’s a powerful tool when organising events, conferences, concerts

Sharing news and general commentary It allows people to easily share what they are reading, watching, listening to,

and thinking about – with links It facilitates the distribution of ideas, comments, expertise

TWITTER

BUSINESS TWEETING – CAUTION!

Companies tend to ‘push out information’

But Twitter should be more about conversations rather than making announcements

You should spend time understanding the way people are talking about you

Go in search of people tweeting about your products, brand, company and industry

BUSINESS PROFILES

Business Profiles often come across as faceless and overly corporate

Recommend you reveal the person behind the Twitter And the personality and humanness behind your organisation

#Tip – Setting up your Business Profile: Name field = company Bio field = person (or people) behind the account (max 160 characters) Example: ‘I’m Sarah Marketing Director at xxx. I love to chat about the who-what-

when-where of xxx’ Custom background for further info, photo, etc

WHAT TO TWEET?

Variety! Expertise / thought leadership Third party links Promotions Resources and tips Questions Personal updates (the human side of your organisation) Remember 75% on topic, maximum 10% promotional

STATUS UPDATES

140 characters Most importantly, can contain URL links

STATUS UPDATES - VARIETY

TRIMMING MESSAGES

Message too long?

#Tip: Use a plus sign (+) instead of ‘and’ or ‘&’ Leave out full stops/unnecessary punctuation Use common abbreviations #Tip: Shrink URL links (bit.ly, tinyurl) #Tip: Shrink prose – 140it.com

TRIMMING MESSAGES

Place long URL in here

FOLLOW OR BE FOLLOWED?

Following shows you are ‘listening’ Following opens up a world of shared knowledge to you Following gets PR outreach Following grows followers #Tip: Manage via www.friendorfollow.com

WHO TO FOLLOW?

Your existing database / customers Cool people in your industry (or related) Followers of ‘cool people’ Peers and thought leaders Your competitors Others that your target group/s may be influenced by Inspiring brands Interest groups Journalists/influential bloggers

BUILDING YOUR OWN FOLLOWING

Be interesting – everywhere (consistently) Link/promote Twitter account:

Website Blog Newsletter Business cards and other printed material

The more ‘influencers’ you get to follow you – the greater the number who have given you ‘permission’ to market to them

TWEETDECK

Tweetdeck is a Twitter ‘client’ Tweetdeck.com Others include Hootsuite

TWEETDECK

RETWEETS (RT)

Retweeting is the simple act of reposting someone else’s interesting, insightful or useful tweet and giving them credit

It creates the ‘linking’ element of the Twitter network system

Try to always personalise! Explain why you are spreading this tweet?

RETWEETS (RT)

#HASHTAGS

Hashtags were devised to ‘categorise’ messages Used for:

Events Hot topics Networking (#followfriday) Group chat Collecting ideas – asking questions Sharing an experience

#HASHTAGS

ASKING/ANSWERING QUESTIONS

Twitter is a giant Q&A machine “Who’s the best barber in New York?” “Where can I find.....?” “Is the film X any good?” Reply @questioner with answer

TWITTER AND PR

Twitter is home to thousands of journalists, media workers and PR people

Follow the media people who cover your sector

Respond to requests

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