Twitter For Business

Twitter for Business

How can we benefit!

• Name: Colin Burns• Contact: [email protected]

What makes me qualified to talk about Twitter as it relates to business?

• Well nothing really!!! I just think it’s an interesting topic!

Twitter: An Introduction

Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ platform which allows users to post short text messages (up to 140 characters in length) and converse with other users via their phones, web browsers or other applications.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

Wikipedia definition of what Twitter is

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.

We have seen the definition of Twitter, but how else can we use it?

• Is it a tool to create relationships?• Is it a tool to maintain relationships?• Is it a tool to monitor your brand?• Is it a tool to monitor your competitors

brand?• Yes to all of the above... And more but

we’ll get to that later in the talk!

Is it a tool to create relationships

The ability to create relationships with people you have never met or have celebrity status is just a Tweet away.

For example last night I had a chat with @god.

Is it a tool to maintain relationships?

Again, Twitter is a simple an effective way of staying in touch with those friends who are enlightened enough to use it

In real world usage if you are a Geek and your friends are also Geeks then keeping touch with them is a lot easier. If your friends are not Geeks then you are probably creating new relationships with other early adopters

Twitter for Business

• Requires a strategy & defined goals to be most effective

• If you are a larger business then you probably want a policy to ensure the integrity of your brand

• Be persistent & patient! When you don’t understand why you are doing this refer back to your strategy!

Some examples of companies that are using Twitter

Sitepoint – twitaway.com

CNN.com

CNN use @cnnbrk as method of publishing breaking news to everyone who follows @ccnbrk

Charity: Water - charitywater.org

Recently, Charity: Water, a non-profit working to provide safe, accessible drinking water to developing countries used Twitter to raise more than a US$250,000 for their cause.

Charity: Project 18Project 18 is a newly registered charity that is

raising funds to help house orphaned children in Sumatra, Indonesia.

How you can help, with something really simple.Goal: Get 100 subscribers to the blog by

the end of the day! Retweets got us there!http://catherinebolt.com

Crisis Management

Twitter can be used as both a crisis mitigation tool as is in the case of power outages, road closures, flooding etc. and also as a method to communicate with the public once a crisis has hit.

CFA Volunteers

Promotions

When you get the time take a look at some of these examples of using Twitter for promotions

• http://www.chrisbrogan.com/cafe-shaped-business-the-roger-smith-hotel/• http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10124723-36.html• http://twitter.com/AirAsiaDotCom/status/3324259243

helped me get return flights to Kuala Lumpur for 4 people plus an internal Malaysian return flight for $1200 - happy customer!

• http://twitter.com/VodafoneNews_AU/status/1879585991

SPAM

• Unfortunately because of all the benefits I’ve listed above the spammers and the get rich quick crew are also on Twitter.

• I don’t think anyone who has a Twitter account isn’t in some way being spammed.

Big Business

• Usage is different than for little businesses• Should be careful (more potential to cause

brand image problems if not controlled)• Should have a Social Media policy that

encompasses Twitter & other social media outlets like Facebook etc.

Small Business

• Generally not as important to have a policy, because the users is probably either the owner or can be easily monitored

• A policy couldn’t hurt• Goals would be good if you want to

measure the ROI• Generally small business Twitter use tends

to be more personal and the users personality shows through the tweets.

TOOLS

• CoTweet – Manage multiple Twitter accounts and let multiple people manage a single account

• Desktop Twitter Clients – too many to mention• Phone Twitter Clients – too many to mention

See http://twitter.com/downloads• Template Twitter Strategy for Government Departments –

extremely useful for Government, Big & Small business alike. http://bit.ly/3wpN14

THANKSIf you would like any further advice or ideas on using Twitter in

your business or for your clients businesses don’t hesitate to contact [email protected]

If you would like further reading take a look here - http://bit.ly/3qZkTH - It is an article I wrote for the Brightlabs (www.brightlabs.com.au) blog when I worked there.