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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Getting More out of Twitter for Business

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Listen, Learn, and EngageWhy Twitter?

@EOC_info: Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, publishes online messages with a maximum of 140 characters. (102 Characters)

@EOC_info: Considered to be the fastest growing social network, and is one of the most viral social media tools freely available. (119 Characters)

@EOC_info: Successful companies use Twitter to listen and engage with their customers, prospects, and stakeholders. (104 Characters)

@EOC_info: Twitter is like skimming the headlines, only viral with links, tweets and conversation moving at the speed of 140 characters. (126 Characters)

@EOC_info: What can Twitter do for my organization? Twitter connects organizations to their target audiences and allows them to build trust. (129 Characters)

@EOC_info: Twitter is a tool meant for engaging, not just following and being followed. (87 Characters)

@EOC_info: Organizations can use Twitter Search to find fellow industry organizations, professionals, and potential stakeholders to follow. (139 Characters)

@EOC_info: Twitter is a helpful tool when effectively used. The dynamics of the Twitter community allows organizations to connect with their stakeholders and offer information about themselves or their cause. Companies can meet new people, share information with their stakeholders about organization updates or events, track trends and conversations. With Twitter, companies need to listen, engage and build relationships that extend beyond the social network. (Not 140 Characters)

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 2

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Listen, Learn, and EngageTwitter Glossary?

TwitterThe Service.

TweetEach of your Twitter posts or updates is known as a tweet. Each tweet is no longer than 140 characters.

RetweetA retweet is when you share the tweet of one user with all of your Twitter followers. If you happen to follow a Twitter news feed and they post a link to a story that you feel should be shared, you can “retweet” it. Similarly, if someone voices an opinion that you agree with, you can also retweet it. For instance, if user @EOC_info tweeted, “You should hire Rachel to build your website! I could retweet that as: “RT @EOC_info: You should hire Rachel to build your website. Retweets are usually prefaced with “RT @username.”

ReplyAre you responding to a particular user? To reply to any given Twitter community member, preface your tweet with “@username.” If you wanted to send a message to me, for example, you would tweet, “@EOC_info Good morning, Jeff.”

Direct MessageWhereas replies are completely public, a direct message is akin to a private message that you send through a discussion board. To send a direct message to someone, he or she must be following your account. Send a direct message by prefacing your tweet with “d username” without the @ symbol in front of the username.

FollowerWhile Facebook necessitates that all relationships are bilateral, Twitter allows for one-way relationships. If you find Twitter users who are interesting, you can “follow them” to subscribe to their tweets. They do not necessarily have to follow you back.

Following-Follower RatioIn looking at the relative ratio between the number of accounts being followed and the number of followers, you can get a good sense of what kind of Twitter user someone happens to be. If he follows a lot of people but gets followed by very few, it’s likely that he is a spammer or not very interesting. If he follows very few people but gets followed by many, it’s likely that he is interesting but does not have the time to keep up with a lot of people. Celebrities, like Jimmy Fallon, are a good example of this. If the following-follower ratio is approximately 1:1 (like my account), it means the user is reasonably interested in equitable networking.

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 3

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Listen, Learn, and EngageTwitter Glossary?

Twitter ClientWhile you could certainly use the Twitter website itself for all of your Twitter interactions, your experience will be greatly improved by using one of the many Twitter clients available. These work in a similar fashion as instant messenger programs, collecting your Twitter information and presenting it in a more streamlined fashion. Two of the most popular Twitter clients on computers are Hootsuite and TweetDeck, both of which are free. There are also mobile Twitter clients, like Tweetie for iPhone and UberTwitter for BlackBerry.

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 4

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Listen, Learn, and EngageSome Twitter Stats

@EOC_info: There are more than 106 million Twitter accounts. (50 Characters)

@EOC_info: Averages 55,000,000 Tweets a day. (34 Characters)

@EOC_info: The Top 10 Twitter users today based on followers

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 5

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Listen, Learn, and Engage

@EOC_info: 1. Build an account and immediately start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, and words that relate to your business to discover what is important to consumers.

@EOC_info: 2. Talk to customers and prospects about THEIR needs and interests. You can learn a lot through these conversations to help your company stand out from the competition.

@EOC_info: 3. Share links to interesting things your community cares about to further develop relationships with your customers and prospects. ( @wholefoods does this well).

@EOC_info: 4. Promote your employees’ work and outside of work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)

@EOC_info: 5. Use Twitter to augment customer service. ( @Zappos does this well).

@EOC_info: 6. Tweet about how other customers are using your products and services. ( @wholefoods does this well with recipes).

@EOC_info: 7. When you DO talk about you and your company, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, information, etc. People buy from people not company logos.

@EOC_info: 8. Use Twitter to organize online or real life meetings to further your relationships with consumers.

@EOC_info: 9. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetbluegives travel tips.)

@EOC_info: 10. Talk about non-business, too! Twitter can help build relationships beyond sales.

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 6

The 10 DO’s of Twitter

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Listen, Learn, and EngageThe 10 DON’Ts of Twitter

@EOC_info: 1. Don't be boring. Always ask yourself, “How am I adding value to my followers with this tweet?”

@EOC_info: 2. Don't forget the Twitter lingo: RT is retweet, and @name is how you respond or give props to someone. Feel free to be generous with both your RTs and your @s.

@EOC_info: 3. Don't tell your followers about something cool or life-changing without a link or picture (use a service like TwitPic for your photos, and a URL shortener like bit.ly for your links).

@EOC_info: 4. Don't ignore people who send you a direct message or a reply except if it seems like spam. Part of the Twitter experience involves conversing with your followers on the “backchannel” when possible.

@EOC_info: 5. Don't say anything that could get you fired or prevent you from getting a job. Tweets are public and open for everyone to see.

@EOC_info: 6. Don't be rude or disrespectful.

@EOC_info: 7. Don't retweet (RT) without giving credit to the original tweet.

@EOC_info: 8. Don’t get too personal when you are representing a brand on Twitter.

@EOC_info: 9. Don’t be a showoff tweeting too much general information about your you or your company.

@EOC_info: 10. Don’t wait a day to respond to a tweet. Twitter is designed for quick responses and what people have grown accustomed to getting.

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 7

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Listen, Learn, and EngageTwitter Search Tips

@EOC_info: Twitter Search the same as Google or any other search engine.

@EOC_info: You enter the term you want to search and Twitter will find all tweets with that term. It is simple.

@EOC_info: Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, and words that relate to your space.

@EOC_info: Hashtags are tags used to identify tweets related to a certain conversation such as #Iran and #Election. You can either use the hashtag feature of the advanced search or just type #tag into a regular Twitter search.

Where to Search?

Twitter Search Found athttp://search.twitter.com

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 8

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Listen, Learn, and Engage

Twitter Advanced Searchhttp://search.twitter.com/advanced

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 9

Twitter Search Tips

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

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Listen, Learn, and Engage

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 10

Application Recommendation

@EOC_info: Evolution of Communication recommends using an online Twitter application called Hootsuite to manage your Twitter account. Hootsuite also makes their popular application available for download on smartphones.

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Evolution of Communication LLC. © 2010 - Proprietary and Confidential,

for use by intended client only

Listen, Learn, and Engage

About Evolution of CommunicationEvolution of Communication is an interactive agency based in Atlanta that uses the combined power of digital and traditional marketing to listen, learn, and engage with consumers across the vast spectrum of communication channels.

For additional information, please email jeffmello@evolutionofcommunication.com or on Twitter @EOC_info

@EOC_info Twitter Guide, Page 11