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Feeling Twitterpated? Get The Lowdown On Twitter.
By: Julie A. Cajigas
Issue: 2009nov
Twitter is being billed as the next greatest thing by the media and social media pundits, but is it for your business?
If you’re a fan of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, you may have chuckled at his latest sketch, “Twitter Tracker.” Conan promises to pass along any interesting celebrity tweets and the Twitter Tracker takes over, passing along such gems as this from Ashton Kutcher: “Going to the grocery store—need some fixings for a salad.” Of course the satirical set gets a lot of laughs because that’s one prevailing view of what Twitter is—a repository for mundane details.
Indeed, one of the most common objections to joining Twitter is: “Why would I want to read about people making a salad?” If people are raising this objection, then unfortunately they don’t “get” Twitter. It asks people to share what they are doing, but this new social media phenomenon is more public media outlet and network development tool than personal journal.
How Does Twitter Work?
Twitter allows you to broadcast messages that are 140 characters long into a public information stream. Other Twitter users who are interested in your messages can subscribe or “follow” you, which filters your messages into their private information stream, which they see each time they sign on. In turn, you can subscribe to other Twitter users and their messages will appear in your private information stream, which you will see each time you sign on.
In addition to the basic subscription model, Twitter also allows users to send public messages to other users by typing @username. Likewise, a private messaging or DM (direct message) function lets users send private messages to others too.
Twitter For Businesses
Gina Barreca (@ginabarreca), marketing director for Avenel, New Jersey-based supplier Vantage Apparel (UPIC: vantage), began tweeting about a year ago. “I started personally out of curiosity,” she says. Barreca started Twitter as a personal venture, but realized that because some of her personal goals were career-oriented, her profile would eventually be linked with Vantage and her work persona.
She had many questions about the new social media platform when she started, but she soon started making contacts and learning her way around Twitter. “When you first sign on you ask yourself who you are going to follow and why you are there,” she says, “but before I knew it I started to find more industry people and industry organizations.”
When asked about the benefits of her Twitter activities, Barreca lit up. “Often, I find that I learn about things happening in the community before anyone else,” she says. “It’s also important for me to have a larger field of peers and Twitter is an easy way to grow that field.”
Barreca also uses Twitter to gather information in various ways. “If you group your followers and use third-party applications to streamline the way you read tweets, you can find the information you’re looking for quickly and get in and out fast,” she says. “From a business perspective, it opens up an avenue to be a little more personal with prospects and see the other side of what a person is like. That’s important in a professional relationship,” explains Barreca.
On the distributor side, Cleveland, Ohio-based distributor Proforma (UPIC: PROFORMA) (@proforma) is really getting into the Twitter scene. Proforma’s Support Center in Cleveland, Ohio, has its own Twitter handle (@ProformaSupport) as does its e-marketing arm (@proformaemarket) and its HR department (@Proforma_HR).
In addition, many of Proforma’s independent distributor/owners around the country manage their own Twitter accounts. Not only is Proforma using Twitter to communicate with external publics such as clients and potential employees, it’s also using Twitter as an internal mode of communication by which its Support Center can share information with independent distributors.
“Proforma is constantly adapting and adjusting our marketing strategy with the changing marketplace and new technologies,” says Deanna Castello, Proforma’s CMO. “Even before Twitter reached the 40-million user mark, we were creating a plan to develop a presence on the site,” she says. “The inspiration is our desire to remain top-of-mind in the industry, with our owners, potential clients and prospects as well as potential franchise owners. It’s also a great tool for us to communicate our position on recruiting employees for our Support Center in Cleveland, and our franchise owners looking for sales professionals and customer service staff.”
Barreca cautions the industry to remember that Twitter is a public forum and to consider this when tweeting. Proforma agrees, and it has taken steps toward maintaining its image through employee use of Twitter and other social media. “We are currently finalizing our own internal social media policy that outlines our expectations for our employees who are using Twitter, Facebook, etc., on behalf of Proforma and who reference Proforma in their profiles,” says Castello.
While Twitter can clearly be applied as a solution to many communication problems and challenges, potential users often want to see a direct ROI report before signing on. What can industry distributors and suppliers hope to achieve on Twitter?
“Our goal is to be active and aware of the discussion about Proforma, the industry, our opportunities and any other relevant topics,” says Castello. “If we can identify an opportunity to assign a lead to an Owner, then great, but most important we are looking to stay top-of-mind with our target audience on as many vehicles as possible and obtain a position of ‘expert’ in the industry.”
Make Twitter Work For Your Business
For a simple, easy-to-understand explanation of Twitter and its business functions, visit http://commoncraft.com/Twitter_search and watch the video on “Twitter Search in Plain English.” Once you’ve learned the basics, the following tips will help you get started.
1. Just Do It
I overheard recently: “I’ve been really busy, but next week I’ll devote some time to getting started on Twitter.” This statement is funny because it sounds like getting started on Twitter is the equivalent of reading a novel. It’s not like setting up a complicated website, and it’s not even as involved as setting up a Facebook page—it literally takes five minutes.
2. Set Your Settings For Business
The Twitterverse will forgive you if you don’t set up your page in the first five minutes, but if a potential follower comes across your profile a few days later and you haven’t said anything or input details about yourself, they’ll probably keep on moving. Take a minute to visit settings, write your 160-character biography and input your web address.
3. Maximize The Photo Op
Including a photo, or avatar as it’s known in the online world, is crucial. It will appear in the info stream of every person who follows you. Many businesses use their logo or another business-specific image as a profile photo, while others use headshots. Regardless of what you choose, be sure the photo represents your brand well.
4. Your Branded Background
The background on your Twitter page is a great way to show people something about your brand, products or personality. Like your photo, it’s important to understand that your background reflects your brand. You can either use one of the stock backgrounds provided (not recommended) or upload your own image. Many users choose to design a background image that includes more text and information about their business than will fit in the biography line. To see examples of different backgrounds done well, check out the following profiles:
www.twitter.com/PPAIPubs
www.twitter.com/thePerfectSwag
www.twitter.com/PromoGirl360
5. Post Your First Message
The most important part of getting started is to actually post a message. You can start by saying hello and introducing yourself to others. Remember that people search Twitter based on keywords, so the more keywords you include in your tweets, the likelier it is that potential followers will find you.
Tweets should be interesting and add value to the overall conversation on Twitter. If you tweet “I have a sale on pens” 64 times, how likely is it that folks will follow you? Instead, focus on tweets that include observations on industry issues, marketing tips, retweets (see definition in sidebar) of pertinent articles or other valuable bits of information. Personal tweets are also acceptable and encouraged—they help your publics get to know you as a person.
6. Find Tweeple To Follow
Yes, tweeple (Twitter + people = tweeple) or “tweeps” for short. Start by searching for industry terms such as promo, ad specialty, promotional, corporate, logo and others. Another way to find folks to follow is to allow Twitter to connect with your e-mail list and see if your contacts are on Twitter.
Finally, check out PPAI’s various Twitter accounts and look at these follower and following links (each person’s page includes a link to those they are following and those who are following them). These are all great ways to find people to follow. While many people follow every single person who follows them, it’s recommended that you only follow those people whose tweets interest you.
7. Don’t Be A Spammer
Twitter spam is a lot like e-mail spam. You wouldn’t want to follow someone talking about acai berry diets who sends you 100 messages per day about the one rule to losing belly fat. By the same token, your followers don’t want to hear about your sale on t-shirts 55 times in the same day (or the same week, or the same month).
The best way to gain followers is to blend tweets about marketing tips, branding tips and promotional ideas with personal tweets about your business and your life.
Additionally, avoid messaging and private messaging people with links that are self-promotional. Twitter is all about bringing value to the conversation, which doesn’t include shameful self-promotion.
8. Start A Conversation
Use @replies and #hashtags (see definitions below) to engage other Twitter users in conversation. The best way to use @replies is to reply to users’ posts with interesting observations or answers to their questions. Barreca advises providing help to other Twitter users where you can because your contributions will make you a valued member of this new community (and a nice person). By viewing Twitter as an interactive medium, you’ll get a lot more out of it as a business user and a personal user.
9. Monitor The Industry Conversation
Using the search box on your Twitter homepage or websites such as http://search.twitter.com, you can keep up with the conversation about the industry, products, clients and your business. Regularly search for your business to see what’s happening and who is talking about you. For real-time search capabilities and to group and organize the people you are following, consider downloading third-party applications such as Tweet Deck (http://tweetdeck.com) or Seesmic Desktop (http://seesmic.com).
Information Overload
If you feel intimidated by these steps, just breathe. Most people on Twitter never used advanced guides or how-to books to learn all the above details. Instead, they just rolled up their sleeves and started, learning along the way. As much as the information above is helpful, the best way to learn, in this case, is by doing.
It’s easy once you get started. And if you get stuck, there are great resources that can help you—the best of which is http://business.twitter.com. You can find more information there, including case studies and additional best practices. Go forth, tweet and prosper!
Julie A. Cajigas is a freelance journalist, public relations professional and owner of Inspired Copy & Communications, LLC.
julie@inspiredfreelancer.com
@jewelsann
Walk The Walk, Speak The Tweet
Followers
This term refers to people who are following you, or subscribing to your Twitter updates. By subscribing, your updates appear on their home screen every time you tweet. Conversely, you see the tweets of those you follow in the information stream on your home screen. “I have 600 followers, but I only follow 40 people.”
Tweet
Simply, a tweet is a single message on Twitter. “My tweet was very funny.”
@username or @mentions
Gina Barreca is referred to as @ginabarreca. This means that “ginabarreca” is her username on Twitter. You can find her by going to http://twitter.com/ginabarreca. @ginabarreca is the way she identifies herself on other websites so people can find her on Twitter.
Here is a sample tweet using the @username:
@ginabarreca I love your new background!
The above message is called an “@mention” or “@reply” (pronounced “at mention/at reply”). @mentions are a public way to communicate with other Twitter users. If you check your Twitter homepage you will see a link that says @yourusername on the right-hand column. In Gina’s case, this link says @ginabarreca. Any time a user tweets a message such as the one above, Gina can click on her @ginabarreca link and see a running list of all those @mention messages.
Tip: To reply easily from the Twitter website, mouse over a message and look on the right end for the reply arrow. Click the arrow to start a new message addressed to the original user.
DM (Direct Message)
DMs are direct messages that only you and the recipient can see. These are helpful if you want to share private information such as a phone number or e-mail address with one of your followers. You can only send a DM to people who are following you and vice-versa. Click on the DM tab on your home page to write a direct message and choose the user you’d like to send it to from the drop-down menu.
Tip: If you’re communicating with customers about something potentially sensitive—including personal information, account numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, etc.—be sure to encourage them to DM or e-mail you. @mentions are public, so anyone can see them.
RT (Retweet)
If you see an interesting tweet, article or quote, you may want to share it with your own followers. A retweet or RT is a way to credit the person who originally posted the article or the interesting tweet.
Example:
Original Tweet:
Proforma: “This article on Twitter is really great: http://business.Twitter.com/Twitter101/learning”
Retweet:
GinaBarreca: “RT @Proforma This article on Twitter is really great: http://business.Twitter.com/Twitter101/learning”
By putting the RT in front of the tweet, you are letting your followers know that you are retweeting something that another person has already tweeted. By including that person’s @username, you are giving him or her direct credit.
Trending Topics
On the right-hand side of your Twitter profile page is a list of trending topics. These are topics being discussed by the majority of Twitter users, which likely indicates that they are important for one reason or another. For example, in August the term “District 9” trended for several days because the movie “District 9” was new in theatres and users were discussing it. During the presidential election, the candidates’ names were trending topics. If you see a trending topic and can’t figure out why it is trending, the website www.whatthetrend.com can help. It’s a user-guided website where users explain the current trending topics.
Hashtag (#)
In order to make trending topics even easier to find, people created the concept of a hashtag, which is the # symbol followed by a keyword that describes the topic. Add a hashtag to let people know your message is related to a specific topic. For example, if you are posting about The PPAI Expo you might want to create a hashtag such as #PPAIExpo.
This way everyone interested in The Expo can search for that hashtag to learn what is happening. If enough people use the #PPAIExpo hashtag, it can become a trending topic on Twitter. Companies often use hashtags for product launches, and events such as The PPAI Expo often use them to keep attendees in touch with one another.
Tweetup
A tweetup is a local in-person meet-up where local Twitter users get together to meet one another in person. This is a great place to network and share news about your business.
Shortened URLs
Let’s say you want to share a URL with your Twitter followers, but the URL is very, very long. Because you only have 140 characters to share your message, you must shorten that URL so it will fit in the message box. Many sites can help you shorten URLs including http://bit.ly, http://tinyurl.com and http://owly.com. Some even track click rates for the link. The website http://bit.ly shows anyone who inputs the original link exactly how many clicks it has received and is a great website for shortening URLs.
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