What is Twitter
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Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to post short updates of up to 140 characters. It functions like a cross between instant messaging and an online chat room. The largest demographic of Twitter users are 35-44 year olds. People use Twitter as a virtual water cooler to engage in conversations and build online communities. Marketing via Twitter can help engage customers, monitor brand mentions, and provide live updates on events. Setting up a profile, learning how to post, follow others, retweet, and use hashtags are important basics for using Twitter effectively. Objectives like networking, monitoring brand mentions, and extending the reach of content can be achieved through strategic Twitter use.
What is Twitter
- 2. What is Twitter?Twitter is a tool for "micro-blogging" or posting very short updates, comments or thoughts. In fact, since Twitter was designed to be very compatible with mobile phones through text messages, each update is limited to 140 characters. Truly, a micro-blog. Another way to think of Twitter is like a cross between instant messaging (IM) and a chat room, because it is an open forum; but you restrict it to the people with which you connect.
- 3. Who Uses Twitter?Twitter’s largest demographic is 35-44 year olds making up 25% of users. Over 14% of users are “Stable Career types”, young and ethnically diverse singles living in big cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami. Another 12% are “Young Cosmopolitans” (40-ish) with household incomes over $250,000 per year. The site has a large following of older, professional audiences, and 25% or users are considered “high earners”. (Source: Twitter Power, Joel Comm, 2009)
- 4. Why do they use it?People buy from those you know, even virtually knowPeople like the virtual water cooler that Twitter isPeople want to create communities, even if it’s online
- 5. Marketing and PR via Twitter:Engage your CEO in Social Media: Twitter is actually perfect for a CEO or founder who is always on the road meeting with people and who has some interesting opinions on your market.Keep in touch with media: This can be a much easier way to connect with the media rather than calling or emailing them.
- 6. Marketing and PR via Twitter:Monitor your company brandLive updates on events or conferences: if you are participating in a large trade show or corporate event you can use Twitter to announce last minute changes or interesting events that are happening. It is a great last minute marketing tool.
- 7. Step by Step Guide for beginners:Sign up and post a profile at www.twitter.comWrite some updates. The beauty of Twitter is that the 140 character limit is the great equalizer.. Post a link to a news article you liked with a one line comment, mention an interesting thought you had, just write something.How to post URLs. Twitter is based on 140 character updates. If you have a really long URL, that doesn't leave much room for Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short. Give it a shot if you have a long URL that you want to market on Twitter.
- 8. Step by Step Guide (cont.):Monitor conversations about your company. Even if you don't join Twitter yourself you can monitor what people are saying about any person, company or brand. This is quite useful from a marketing and PR standpoint. Twitter has a search engine that lets you do just this. You can subscribe to these searches by RSS to keep yourself updated. Another tip is that you can "follow" all the people you find talking about your company (just click on their username to go to their profile). If they are talking about your company, they would probably be pretty happy that someone from the company wants to follow them.
- 9. Step by Step Guide (cont.):How to "chat". Using the @ symbol before someone's Twitter username is how people have "conversations" in Twitter. This makes their username a link to their profile so other people can follow the conversation (sort of). For example if you wrote "@chellemurph thanks for the cool blog article about Twitter today" that would be a way of telling me you liked this article. Try it out. It's not IM (instant messaging), but it is sort of like a publicly broadcast IM service. Step by Step Guide (cont.): Just like you wouldn’t attend networking events every day, all day. Don’t plan to network on Twitter that much. Some do, I don’t know how they manage it. Set aside time often to catch up on what is being said. Try to make that hour at different times of the day so you catch a variety of people. Tweet about what you are reading, i.e.: in the newspaper, books, magazines. If there is an online version, include a reference to it. If you purchased the book online, provide a reference to that too. Get people interested, and find people interested in what you gravitate towards.Respond to what others are saying, “Thanks for the article”, “great point”.Spend some time making idle chit chat (people on twitter seem to like it).
- 10. Step by Step Guide (cont.):Ask probing questions, but stay online to catch if anyone responds, then engage with them. Further, make interesting statements without a question.Retweet (RT) what others are saying. If someone is asking for help (“I’m looking for a great Restaurant in Carlsbad”) RT that to your network. It’s a nice thing to do. Network just as you would face to face, make introductions between like minded people. Create a custom profile page, keep with the same branding as your website. Think Organic and Authentic – Organically grow your followers, don’t use any of the get followers quick tools; and, authentically communicate.
- 11. Some base concepts…Tweet - When you post or write your 140 characters on twitter and hit send it’s called a tweet or tweeting.Handle – that’s your twitter name @chellemurph– balance short with descriptive and no matter what your business handle is get your personal name if you can even if you don’t plan to use it right now. – it’s like your URL and will have value some day.Follow – this is simply the act of adding someone to your list of people you are following – this makes their tweets show up on your homepage.
- 12. Some base concepts…Replies – this is what it is called when someone writes a tweet directly at your handle - @chellemurph cool post today blah blah – this is often an invite to engage with a follower.Retweet– this is a tactic of republishing someone else’s tweet – the original tweet along with author stays in tact, but you are basically showing someone’s tweet to your followers – many people find this a great way to add content and acknowledge good stuff from the folks they follow.
- 13. Some base concepts…DM – This is a message that is sent directly to another user. They must be following you for you to DM them, but this is a very useful tool for private messages and generally a good choice when you start going back and forth with someone on something your entire base of followers might not find interesting.Hashtag – This is a way people categorize tweets so that others might use the same tag and effectively create a way for people to view related tweets – it will look something like #marketing – more on this in search.
- 14. Should I use it? Now that is the real question isn’t it? Many people look at twitter on the surface and conclude that it’s just one big waste of time. I can’t say I disagree completely, but like all social media and marketing tactics, before you can determine if something makes sense you need to analyze your objectives. So, instead of asking why you would use it, ask how it might help you achieve some other already stated objectives.
- 15. Achievable Objectives:Would you like a way to connect and network with others in your industry or others who share you views? It’s a good a tool for that.Would you like a way to get instant access to what’s being said, this minute, about your organization, people, products, or brand? It’s a good tool for that.
- 16. Achievable Objectives (cont.):Would you like a steady stream of ideas, content, links, resources, and tips focused on your area of expertise or interest? It’s a good tool for that.Would you like to monitor what’s being said about you or your brand
- 17. Achievable Objectives (cont.):Would you like to extend the reach of your thought leadership – blog posts and other content? It can be a good tool for that.Would you like to promote your products and services directly to a target audience? Not such a good tool for that?
- 18. Managing your Twitter activityOnce you start using twitter you’ll want to explore ways to make it easier to follow what’s going on and respond to @replies and searches you’ve set-up. There are number of 3rd party desktop and mobile applications that make this a snap.TweetDeck – http://www.tweetdeck.com - This is a piece of software that you run on your desktop. You can post tweets from it, respond to replies from others and, this is what I really like, set up various searches and get updates in real time when someone tweets on a subject of phrase you are following.