Getting Started
with Twitter
• What is Twitter and Why Is It Important?• What Does This Mean For You? How Can You
Use Twitter?• The Cost of NOT Participating
• Getting Started and Jumping in• Not All of Your Tweets Should Be Sells or
Pitches• Who to Follow? How to Get More Followers?• Partners, Prospects, and Customers are Using It
• What’s the Deal with Re-Tweeting?• #Hashtags• How to Operationalize This• Dos and Don’ts
Agenda
Twitter Isn’t Optional Anymore
Getting Started With
How-Tos of Twitter
title image source: http://www.noop.nl/
• Microblogging– via sharing short
status updates (max 140 char)
– A great place to find + share URLs to other content
• Asynchronous network– A can follow B
without B having to follow A
• 2 ½-minute video on “Twitter in Plain English”
What Is Twitter … And Why Is It Important?
Image originally created at http://lovelycharts.com/
What Is Twitter … And Why Is It Important?
• 540M users, 340M tweets…and growing
• Used by marketers, people seeking brand assistance, or just plain ol’ investigating– real-time search– brand management– other uses
• Twitter is a platform that permits all kinds of things
• Offers real-time, direct line of communication for partners and prospects
image source: http://strategyplanone.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/twitter-statistics-showing-exponential-growth-infographic/
What Does This Mean For You?
• This may seem like it is just another task to add to your list. But, for…– marketing, it helps with market research, validation, spying on competition,
event support– prospecting, it helps with identifying people needing help, answering
questions– establishing credibility, it helps with getting known for what you do,
generating trust
• It is really another tool (not another task) to help you do what you are already doing: staying tuned in to the market, the space, the industry, the… (you get the idea)
image source: Mufidah Kassalias’ flickr photo stream
• Follow media types, bloggers, journalists
• Look/listen for questions getting asked about our products (see hashtag slide for an example)
• Follow talk of industry and trends
• Share news about events
• Share links to information
• Ask a question
How Can You Use Twitter?Focus on the verbs
image sources: author screenshots
• If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen? – Yes. Conversations are taking place, with or without you. – Every online conversation – positive or negative – is an
opportunity to engage.
• If you’re not part of the conversation, then you’re leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it’s accurate or incorrect. – ‘Others’ could be your competition
• Negativity will not go away simplybecause you opt out of participating.
• So, opt in. JUMP IN.
The Cost of Not Participating
image source: Christopher Sessums’ flickr photo stream
Getting Started
• Set up your own account at www.twitter.com (user ID [15 characters max], password, an e-mail address)
• Submit a picture or somehow-related avatar, create your profile + bio– Be real. Be human.
• Send out a test tweet, dip your toe in the water,search for something interesting
• Use @ messages to start generating some interest for your own account
image sources: author screenshots
Jumping In
image sources: author screenshots
• Re-tweet, recommend people, and start engaging…Helping and sharing are two huge currencies in
social media– One-way promotion is not
• You can use the http://www.twitter.com interface, or a third-party application (HootSuite is a good one – also available on mobile) – HubSpot offers access, too – Can also connect in LinkedIn to HootSuite as well, making it a
central dashboard– Install browser extensions (‘Hootlet’, HubSpot) to share
content as you browse
• Method (the cleaning products company) is a great example
• Five recent tweets, all replies to people, one is a link to their jobs page, and none is a pitch or a ‘buy our stuff’
• …and they have 17,000 followers
Not All of Your Tweets Should Be Sells or Pitches
Remember the 4-1-1 Rule:
image sources: http://www.123print.com/blog/7-ways-to-improve-your-linkedin-company-page/ ; http://blog.marketo.com/2012/07/the-4-1-1-rule-for-lead-nurturing.html ; author screenshot
• Try www.WeFollow.com and enter key search phrases– e.g., Managed Service, RMM,
MDM
• Go to a prominent Twitter account that you like, and see who they/it follows, and their/its followers
• Look at their contact info on LinkedIn
Who to Follow? How to Get More Followers?
image sources: author screenshots
Partners, Prospects, and Customers are Using It
image sources: author screenshots
What’s The Deal With Re-Tweeting?
• Re-tweet is spreading a message. Remember: Helping and sharing are two huge currencies in social media.
• Usual syntax is as follows: – RT (for ‘Re-Tweet’) then a space, then an @ sign and a Twitter ID
(giving that person credit), then the message– Some people also use the message and then add “(via @___)” at the
end of the message– You can also use the Retweet function in Twitter (no option to add a
message, though)
• Can add an optional leading or trailing message if you use the manual method
image sources: author screenshots
What’s The Deal With Re-Tweeting?
• Avoid re-tweeting someone’s re-tweet of you– It comes across as, “Hey everyone! Look what someone else
already said about me, after I said it first!”
• Keep in mind the 140 character limit– If you want someone to re-tweet you,
give them room!– Keep your message (including any URLs or
picture links) to no more than 120 characters, sothey can quote or schedule a re-tweet!
• Click on ‘Notifications’ to see who mentioned orreplied to you, followed you, or re-tweeted you
image sources: author screenshots
#Hashtags• Think of hashtags as bookmarks
with a ~2-week shelf life
• Emergent – not sanctioned or issued by decree– folksonomy vs. prescriptive
vocabulary
• Syntax: add # and then some text (no spaces/punctuation) –all it takes to make a hashtag
• Useful for linking groups of tweets together– e.g.: #BlogChat or #MSPradio or generic trending topics ,
or, following all the happenings at an event or a tradeshow
• Start a new #hashtag or search to see how an existing one has been used
image source: author screenshots
#Hashtags – Dos and Don’ts
• Don’t use a hashtag that’s too long
• Don’t use more than three in a tweet
• This counts toward the 140-character limit
• Do use a hashtag that makes sense and is easy to use
image source: http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/27/hashceratops-aims-to-formally-add-place-tagging-to-the-twitter-stream/
How to Operationalize This: Some To-Dos
Conduct an informal poll – ask a question, engage the audience
Look at what @FollowContinuum is tweeting, and consider re-tweeting it, or commenting (@-ing) those that interact with those tweets
Use @replies to others in your stream
Look at what the competition is doing and comment on that (being professional and courteous at all times)
Don’t simply tweet inane, mundane information. Make it valuable. Share what you are reading, what excites you, what is it about the event you are attending that is interesting.
Aim for a minimum of one quality tweet per day
“Twitter is a live wire, unraveling the ‘now’ Web and surfacing the thoughts, events, breaking news, reactions and conversations that represent the focus of our attention.”
quotation source: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/on-twitter-what-are-you-doing-is-the-wrong-question/
Dos and Don’ts in Social Media
Reacquaint yourself with your company’s social media policy + procedure, or code of conduct
DO Be authentic – disclose who you are and for whom you work Be positive – this is a chance to engage with people; pretend it’s
like meeting them for the first time at a party Be respectful
DON’T Lie or pretend to be someone else – authenticity matters Be negative with respect to your competition Disclose sensitive information, especially with respect to earnings,
acquisitions, or recent deals (unless pre-approved)
REMEMBER Whether you think you are or you aren’t, you are always
representing your company’s brand
Summary
• You can say a lot in 140 characters
• Connecting to partners on Twitter ultimately will help you connect with your customers and help them succeed
• It’s a tool, not a task
• Focus on quality, and create a cadence of communication that’s right for you
BONUS CONTENT
• Twitter, tweet, send, post (v.) – to post a status update or share something on Twitter
• tweet, post, update (n.) – a contribution on the Twitter platform, usually text
• follower – someone who opts in to following updates from another• locked – One of the states of a twitter account; i.e., not open, or
protected; this is not recommended• @, @s, at, at replies, replies, mentions – when a post includes
another Twitter user; tagging them is know as an ‘at’ (@), and will alert that user that they been mentioned in a status update
• DM or direct message – a private message exchange on Twitter from one user to another; the person receiving the DM must be already following the person who is sending it … and never DM spam – it’s just not good practice
• RT or retweet – someone sharing an update and giving attribution (the norm); similar to receiving and email message and forwarding it to a broader list
• # or hashtag – a sign used with text and numbers (more on this later) to group a message into a collective, or to give a tweet context
Vocabulary (keep this as a reference)
• https://business.twitter.com/twitter-101• https://twitter.com/search-advanced
• http://www.gradontripp.com/2009/08/27/can-you-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-umm-maybe/ - notes on why your bio and profile matter
• http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/retweetable-tweets/ • http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business
/ - great list of ideas
Extra Reading + Ideas
image source: author screenshots
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