Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
The following is a repost from Chris Brogan’s Blog from almost two years ago. I know, I know, a couple of years on the internet is like ancient history. However, if you haven’t started using twitter or are struggling to see the relevance, this contains some great information and it’s well worth the repost several years later. So without further ado . . .
We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer.
Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. Further, you might have some really great ideas to add. Jump right in!
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
First Steps
- Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
- Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
- Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
- Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
- Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
- Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
- Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
- Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
- Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
- Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.
Ideas About WHAT to Tweet
- Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
- Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
- When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
- Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
- Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
- Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
- When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
- Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
- Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. – Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
- Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.
Some Sanity For You
- You don’t have to read every tweet.
- You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
- Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
- Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
- 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
- If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
- If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
- Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
- If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
- Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
The Negatives People Will Throw At You
- Twitter takes up time.
- Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
- Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
- There are other ways to do this.
- As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
- Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
- Twitter is just for technonerds.
- Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
- Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
- Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.
Some Positives to Throw Back
- Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
- Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
- Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
- Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
- Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
- Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
- Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
- Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
- Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
- Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)
What else would you add? How are you using Twitter for your business?
Tags: Business, Chris Brogan, marketing strategies, Twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Businesses are all a buzz about social media. “Gotta have social media!” Maybe you’ve seen the commercials with twitter and facebook icons? Or driven down the road and seen billboards with these same icons? Or people chatting in the coffee shops? It seems to be all over the place and everyone is on a social network. But what are they doing? Is it just a waste of my time? or will it make a difference in my business to be online?
What are people actually doing on social networks? We could probably sit and chat all day about what people are doing. No two people’s activity is going to be the same. With all the networks and their various applications; we are literally bombarded with activities, requests, and messages from these sites. I know people who sit all day and play the games on facebook, or sit and read and reply to twitter posts for hours, or send status updates about everything they do on facebook. Are these really the most effective ways to be using this medium? That’s a great question and one only you can answer for yourself. Do you have time to do these tasks? What do you want to get out of your social network? Are you using it for personal purposes, business, or both?
These social platforms can become a complete time sink or they can be the best thing that has ever happened to your business. It’s all up to you and how effective your strategy is. If you haven’t got one yet, go ahead, create an account and spend some time just cruising the networks, see what people are saying, doing, being. And then take some time to think about your business goals. How could your business goals be enhanced by using twitter? facebook? linkedin? youtube? or one of the numerous other networks out there? There are different cultures on each of these platforms and what information and how the information is presented may appeal to different groups on each of these. How can you leverage that? How can you make your message stand out?
Find a way to integrate your goals with your activity on your networks. Make sure you can monitor the activity your social network produces surrounding your business strategy. I like Google analytics, but there are plenty of other ways to monitor this. Do some research, listen to the conversation on the internet, ask trusted friends, or call us. We are always ready to help you put together the right strategy.
Maybe the best thing about these networks, you can put in as much time or as little time into these worlds as you want and if you make a mistake, it’s ok. You acknowledge it, re-evaluate your strategy and move forward. No one is going to hold it against you. It’s a new medium and we are all students and someday teachers. We’ll appreciate your integrity and value your connection just a bit more.
So what are you waiting for? I know you’ve got something to say! Say it, do it, be it . . . go!
Tags: Business Strategy, Facebook, Linkedin, Social Media, Social Network, Twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
