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Catching the Next Generation of Business. Lane Sutton. What is Twitter?. A microblogging platform. A tweet is a status update that is limited to 140 characters and your followers who subscribe to your tweets, will receive it. It will also display in Twitter search, and on the web.
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Catching the Next Generation of Business • Lane Sutton
What is Twitter? • A microblogging platform. • A tweet is a status update that is limited to 140 characters and your followers who subscribe to your tweets, will receive it. It will also display in Twitter search, and on the web. • Share in real-time links, information, articles, thoughts with the web (directly, privately, publicly) • `
Twitter by the Numbers • Close to 300 million users. • 66.5% of businesses have adopted SM in past 18 mos. • 50% of U.S. businesses use Twitter to engage and inform existing customers. • 80% of Twitter engagement is link-clicking. • 52% of Americans have a social media profile. • 43% of U.S. businesses using SoMe receive new business.
Man tweeted photo of “Miracle on the Hudson” • Through that picture taken minutes within the situation - CNN was able to break the story.
Tweets per Day • Now: Over 140 million tweets sent per day.
Best Practices • Make two-way connections. (You should be talking to others, have conversations, engaging, and they should talk to you - not one way) • Be personable, the seriousness is now gone. It is all about adding that touch. • Don’t over-promote. • Don’t be a broadcaster. Be a creator, connector, and engager.
Trust and Buying Decisions! • 83% of adults trust opinions of a friend/acquaintance who has used the product or service. • One in three Internet users say purchase decisions are swayed by social media content.
Twitter Wins on Clicks • Twitter gets the most clicks for links, and users love to circulate content.
The 80/20 Rule • The 80% represents talking with others, engaging with them, and not yourself. • The 20% is for you! Do little promotion with this, but rather tweet out relevant content to your brand (that others will like). Don’t yell!
Answering Questions • Twitter users are loyal to brands, but they want an answer. • Many use Twitter as a second method of communication, if phone or e-mail don’t work quickly as 5% say. • Especially the more influential a user is, the more it will impact your business (good or bad). They could complain, or rave about answering their question or the good service they received.
Audience Demographics 1/3 of monthly users are 25-34 years old.
Timing • Between 11 am and 5pm are the most popular active tweeting times. • Later in the day, and later in the week are the most re-tweetable times. • CTR highest mid-week and weekends, and at noon and 6 pm.
Listen! • “Grow bigger ears.” -Chris Brogan • Listen for your brand, see what others are saying. Good or bad? • Answer questions, engage with customers (existing, potential, and past).
ROI? • The ROI is calculated from monitoring your conversations, your relationships built, and where your customers found you.
Why “Content Rules” • 27 million articles are shared each day. 23% of status updates include a link to content. • Besides creating your own content is a great way to get followers to click through to your website. • “Do what you do best, and link to the rest” -@jeffjarvis • Make content shareable (include share button on websites like ShareThis/AddThis) • Share relevant content for others to re-tweet, and you get promoted. (I call it the Giving Tree)
Interaction between Customers/Brands • More than 1/2 of active Twitter users follow companies, brands, or products. • Twitter is commonly used for requesting customer service issues be resolved. • 25% of users follow a brand.
Use a Blog with Twitter • 79% more Twitter followers for companies with a blog. (HubSpot) • You can promote your own content relevant to your brand, but it isn’t direct self promotion, because it would be valuable to the reader. • They will become advocates for your brand and promote you.
Keep ‘Em Short & Sweet • You’re limited to 140 characters, but leave more room in your tweets to get re-tweets. • I recommend at least 20 characters remaining when you tweet, but it depends on your Twitter name/handle. • Have a call to action, and keep them to the point with focus.
Post Throughout the Day • Think of time zones. If you’re a national business, use EST time, it is the most populated time zone. • 48% of active users log on multiple times during the day. 64% check it at least once a day.
Twitter Clients • www.cotweet.com: web-based, offers tweet scheduling, conversation threading, messaging archives, unified inbox, multiple tweeters, tweets/DMs assigned to respond, brand search, initials of tweeter.’’ • www.hootsuite.com: web-based client with tweet-scheduling, 3 columns for main timeline, mentions, DMs, link shortening, click tracking, file attaching.
Twitter Tools • Timely, www.timely.is: Using your last 199 tweets, it finds the tweets that didn’t get its full potential. it can auto-schedule tweets, tell you best times to tweet, and adapt to new behavior. • Crowdbooster, www.crowdbooster.com: Analyzes impressions, retweets, responses, and followers. It recommends the best times to tweet based on this data.
More Twitter Tools • Social Mention - http://socialmention.com/Google Alerts but for social media, monitor certain search terms on Twitter, blogs, news, and does sentiment analysis. • Bit.ly - URL shortening service that will also track how many clicks a link receives with a graph by day.
More Twitter Tools 2 • TweetEffect.com - See when/why you were unfollowed with tweets and the change in follower numbers. • Twilert.com - Similar to Google Alerts, but tracks search terms and sends an email digest of them.
Advanced Search • www.Search.Twitter.com - you can narrow down your search by phrases, words, terms, location, attitude, dates, and people. • Monitor keywords, competitors, or search for leads.
ReTweets (RTs) • “Retweet someone once and they will notice you, retweet someone often and they will remember you”. -@AskAaronLee • Before just clicking retweet, add something personalized to each tweet like a comment or your thoughts on it.
Dress Up Your Twitter Profile • Dress your profile up with a headshot avatar. Pages with a human avatar are more followed. • Use a site like www.TwitBacks.com to create a custom background with a background picture/logos, add in text to extend beyond the 160 characters biography limit. • For your bio, explain what your company offers. What will you tweet?