Twitter Newbies – Good to Knows!

Confused about how to best use Twitter and need to sort through all the technical jargon just to get started?  Well, then you are what I would call a “Twitter Newbie” and I am going to explain what Twitter is and how to best get started.

First and foremost, think of Twitter as more of a broadcast tool to communicate relevent and important information about you or your business to people who have signed up to follow you.  Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to accept a friend request in return and you really don’t have to approve anyone that does want to follow you.  Let’s break down the basic areas that you need to know in order to make Twitter fun and relevent to your followers.

Tweets

Tweets are short comments that must be less than 140 characters in length.  You can enter your comment about anything but usually the tweet is specific about you or what you are up to or topics that you think your followers would want to read.  These can be anything from politics, the economy, unemployment, sporting events and real estate to just about anything you have a passion for and want to be recognized as a subject matter expert (SME).

For example, if you want to be known as a real estate foreclosure expert and you follow articles relating to this area, you may tweet interesting articles about trends, short sales and REO properties.  Another way of simplifying this is if you are a celebrity and have a fan base, your fans want to know what you are up to.  If you want to develop your SME followers, tweet relevant information that people will want to read.

Sending Direct Messages

In some situations you may want to communicate specifically with one of your followers.  Maybe you are also following them and would like to ask a question or make a personal comment.  To send a message directly to one of you followers,  click the “Messages” button.  Next you will see a list of all of the messages you have sent.  Next, click on the “New Message” button and you will be asked to enter a username that you would like to have the message sent.  Then, all you have to do is to enter your message just like composing a new email and when finished, click “Send”

Tweet Lists

You can develop a list of people you would like to follow in the same manner that people follow you.  First you need to determine if you want to search for people to follow by name or subject of interest.  Twitter will then provide a list of recommended names based on your past searches and people you currently follow.  You can also browse for special topics of interest ranging from arts, business and music to sports and sciences.

Once you click on an interest you can be more specific in the search bar by specifying exactly what you would like to follow in that category.  For example, you may select “Travel” as your main area of interest and then enter “Australia” in the search bar.  You can even search for your friends or family from your contact addresses in any of your standard email accounts or from your Linkedin account.

Keep in mind that some people will set their security settings to protect their tweets.  In this case they would have to approve you before you can view their tweets.  Once you see someone who you would like to follow, all you have to do is click “Follow” and you will be able to see their tweets after they are posted.  However, if the person has their security settings to protect their tweets then you will have to be approved before you can view them.

Lists are also a great way to view tweets in a more organized manner.  To create a list, click on a user’s profile and then click the down arrow next to the “Follow” button.  Then click “Add to List” and select the list you would like this person to be added to.   Enter the information for the  list and choose public or private.

Using Hashtags

Hashtags are used for key words that are preceded by a “#”.  When you click on the hastag, Twitter will show you all of the other top tweets relating to the subject.  Just remember to check how others are using a  particular hashtag before using it.  You might find yourself a bit embarrassed by using a  trending hashtag incorrectly.

Here is an example of a hashtag in a tweet:  “Banks, Regulators Start Massive Review of #Foreclosures, http://ow.ly/7fIK2“

Replies

If you want to reply to a specific tweet with a comment or suggestion, just click on “Reply”.  From there it’s just like sending an email.  Just remember, you still have to keep your replies short and tweet!  You can also insert @username to mention someone in a tweet.   Mentions appear on the Mentions tab.  This helps you see who is talking about you. To search for mentions on others, use @username in the search box.   Mentions  are a great way to build followers.

Summary

In summary, don’t be afraid to explore and try all of the great features with Twitter.  However, I would strongly suggest you set up the people and topics you want to follow first.  Learn what they are tweeting, how they are using Twitter.  To some, Twitter might seem like a waste of time but if you or your company want to really grow, Twitter is an excellent way to build your follower list.

It’s a lot like companies built their prospect email databases in the past but much faster and easier if you remember just one simple rule … keep your tweets relevent and make sure they support what you are trying to accomplish with your fan or follower base.   Here’s to your success with Twitter and don’t forget to come back and visit my blog for other posts in the world of digital and social marketing!

Integrating Social Media into Your Email Campaign Strategy

Many of you have probably used email marketing to communicate new products, services and updates to your customers and to prospect for new customers.  If you aren’t integrating social media marketing into your email campaigns you may be losing out and here’s why?

Email marketing for all intents and purposes as a prospecting tool is dead!  That’s right, I said DEAD!  Ten years ago people actually looked forward to hearing “You’ve Got Mail” and there was no such thing as spam.  However, today is a much different world and there are now spam filters, junk mail, white lists and block senders lists just to name a few of the many ways your email is not getting into your target prospect’s email box.

Spam, or otherwise known as unsolicited email, has virtually made legitimate marketers email efforts worthless.  Today, most people have marked their email preferences to “Only Receive Email from My Contact List” and unless you already have a relationship with this prospect, which is highly unlikely, your message is going to the “JUNK” folder and will never be opened.  However, smart digital marketing companies are using newer social marketing techniques to increase viewings and response rates.   The best article I’ve read is from a well-known email services provider and details all the social media marketing techniques you should be using.

To read the full article, click here:  Social Marketing Road Map Article

Common Mistakes Made with Social Media

So your business is thinking about getting into social media marketing?  Maybe someone, a business associate, consultant or friend has convinced you that you need to try Twitter and Linkedin?  Not sure where to begin or whether you should hire a “So Called” Digital Marketing Expert?

Before you spend too much money to jump into the world of digital and social marketing make sure you know exactly what your company expects to accomplish or you may have to go into damage control with your customers and network.  Here are a few key things to consider and another article that I would recommend you read that is more specific to using Twitter.

FOCUS ON QUALITY

First and foremost, don’t get hung up with driving how fast or how large your follower list is!  Focus on finding quality people to follow your company over just driving traffic!  It’s much better to be communicating with people who have an interest in your product or services than what I would call a “Compiled List” of followers.

Speaking to a thousands of people in an auditorium who don’t really want to be there versus a small room of customers and interested prospects should be your objective.  Be careful to measure the success of your efforts by sales rather than merely the number of followers you have.  Don’t get caught up in bragging rights of how big your list is!

DEVELOP A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Just setting up a Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter account will not determine whether your social marketing efforts will work or not.  The communications  you post must be of interest to the people who follow you or they will quickly remove themselves from your list.  For example, if your a CEO or owner of a small company, it may be cute to say in a post “My son’s birthday party was a blast last night!”  Save these kinds of posts for your personal Facebook accounts and don’t post these to Linkedin or Twitter.

Keep in mind that Twitter and Linkedin are basically business oriented while Facebook can be set up for both a personal as well as business.  Develop interesting posts about your products and services, testimonials, endorsements, new and exciting features and other pertinent stories about your company.   With a well thought communications plan, your followers will look forward to your posts and even forward your posts through email to other friends and colleagues or repost to their own social networking sites.  As an example, take a look at this video by Twitter to get a better idea of how to use it!

GET ALL ABOARD

Make sure your company gets every part of the organization onboard.  By this I mean, make it part of your strategic planning meetings with sales, marketing, IT and operations organizations.  Solicit feedback and reward associates for creative new ideas that can be employed in your social media marketing plans.  Develop key metrics that you will measure the success of the social media marketing efforts on and incorporate into each key leaders performance plan.

Every associate, group, business unit and division must have a clear vision and set of expectations or you may sink a ton of money, time and effort without knowing if your engine is hitting on all cylinders and running smoothly or not!  The bottom line is your objective is to attract new customers, drive new sales, reduce attrition and maximize profitability of your customer base to remain successful.  A team that is totally Onboard and clearly understands your social media marketing strategy and communication plan is essential to avoid confusion and frustration with your network of followers.

Summary

In summary, focus on quality versus quantity of your network followers, develop a clear communications strategy and make sure you define your company objectives and expectations and get all parts of the organization on board.  On my next post I will talk about integrating social media into all aspects of your company’s strategic marketing programs.  For more common mistakes made by companies trying to get into the social marketing area, please visit the following site for a good read!

http://technmarketing.com/2011/03/twitter-and-social-media-mistakes-that-drive-everyone-nuts/