the power of twitter: twitter for business
DESCRIPTION
Twitter is an online social media website and phenomenon that is spurring a new revolution on the Internet -- and in modern business. More than 50 million users have joined its ranks in the past two years, and Twitter.com is amongst the most heavily used and most influential websites on the Internet. This online presentation provides an overview of Twitter, its position and context on the Internet relative to other online tools and social media (Web 2.0), and how to use Twitter as a business tool for increasing sales, and building (or safe-guarding) corporate reputation. Presented by Toby Ward, Prescient Digital Media, for IFCA, Insurance and Financial Communicators Association (members only webinar).TRANSCRIPT
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The Power of TwitterThe Power of Twitter
Toby Ward, Prescient Digital Media
1
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About Prescient
• Toronto-based consulting firm and Vancouver • Prescient plans & builds highly effective websites and intranets
that…o are demonstrably better than the competition;o make CEOs and users happy; ando deliver measurable value by increasing sales and employee
productivity. • Winner of more than a dozen awards incl. a prestigious Webby
Award• Established 2001; profitable, no debt
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Services
• Web Blueprinting• Strategic Planning• Business Requirements
Analysis• Business Case & ROI
Planning• Blueprint Development• Benchmarking & Best
Practices• Information Architecture• Governance• Measurement Planning• Vendor Selection & PM • Design & Development
• Health Content• eHealth Tools & Databases• User Research• Usability Testing• Content Management &
Workflow• Usability Testing• Content Development• Communications & Marketing• Site Management• Corporate Workshops• Full video & audio production
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Prescient Clients
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Agenda
• Twitter Defined (5 mins)
• Social Media Overview (5 mins)
• Twitter Overview (10 mins)
• Your Profile (5 mins)
• Good Tweets (10 mins)
• Twitter Tools (5 mins)
• Dos & Don’ts (5 mins)
• Q & A (10 mins)
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Follow the conversation
Hash tag #TobyWard to discuss this webinar
My Tweets @tobyward
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Twitter definedTwitter defined
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Twitter is
• Short, headline-like messages to a group of people• Messaging tool between groups of people (“followers”)• A.K.A. “micro-blogging” or “presence”
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Social Media OverviewSocial Media Overview
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Web 2.0 / Social Media
• Promote networks of relationships• Transforms users into publishers• Discuss, share & collaborate• From one to many -> many to many
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The power of ‘group’
• Jellybeans in a jar: the average guess of all the guesses is almost always closer than the closest guess
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Web 2.0 (thanks to Shel Holtz)
• Conversation-enabled publishing platformso Blogs, podcasts, Technorati
• Social networkso Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace
• Social bookmarkingo Delic.io.us, Digg, StumbleUpon
• Democratized content networkso Wikipedia, Yahoo! Groups, MyStarbucksIdea
• Presence networks (micro-blogging)o Jaiku, Twitter, Pownce
• Content sharing siteso YouTube, Flickr, ePinions.com
• Virtual networking platformso Second Life, There.com
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4 of the 7 most visited sites
Source: Alexa.com
1. Google2. Facebook3. Yahoo!4. YouTube5. Windows Live 6. Wikipedia7. Blogger.com
15. Twitter
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Groundswell
• Nearly 70% of all Internet users visit social networks
(Cone, Business in Social Media Study, 1983)
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Expectation
• 93% of social media users believe a company should have a social media presence
(Nielsen, 2009)
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Demand
• 39% of employees under the age of 25 would consider leaving their job if their company banned tools such as Facebook
(Telindus, Social Media Study, 2008)
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Your competition
• “For companies, resistance to social media is futile.
• Your competitors are already there.
• Catch up… or catch you later.”
(Business Week, February 19, 2009)
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Good blogging (www.IntranetBlog.com)
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Twitter OverviewTwitter Overview
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Twitter glossary
• @ • RT • # • DM
Name or ID: my profile name & URL (@tobyward)
ReTweet: republishing another Tweet (RT @tobyward)
Hash-tag: label or tag to denote subject (#intranet)
Direct message: email message to someone
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Your ProfileYour Profile
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Bad Profile
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Bad Profile
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Good TweetsGood Tweets
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Good business Tweet
“News headline”
• Short• Impactful• Link
Additionally:• 1-3 hash tags
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Hash-tag
• A label or ‘tag’ for denoting a subject
o #webo #intraneto #socialmediao #sm38
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Good Tweets
Why your Business Needs an Intranet http://bit.ly/7Mnlb5 (@adenin) #intranet
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Good Tweets
Also keep a watch on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, with relationships locked in address books & inboxes. http://bit.ly/2TVqI3 #sm38
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Bad Tweets
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Twitter ToolsTwitter Tools
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Tweetdeck
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Tweetdeck
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Bit.ly
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Shorten URLs
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Shorten URLs
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Dos & Don’tsDos & Don’ts
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Follow the leaders
• 88% of Nonprofits Experimenting with Social Media • 51% of Organizations are Active Users of Social
Media
(Weber Shandwick, Novemer, 2009)
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DO
• Good Tweets: o Short, to the point, aptly descriptive headline with a
link to more (article, post, etc.)
• “No one cares if you’re having coffee, or your plane just landed, or you got the new XBox.”
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DO
• Strong Profile: o State who you are, your role in business / life, and
your expertise / interests.
• “Your profile isn’t blank, or simply limited to a MySpace link or a strange iPhone number.”
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DO
• Open Conversation: o Lots of short posts & links, rather than a string of
‘replies’ or insider conversations with one or a couple of individuals.
• “No one wants to read a string of ‘replies’ or @name talk or insider conversations with one or a couple of individuals.”
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DO
• Original Thought: o By all means highlight and repeat article & blog
posts & links, from content relating to your profile.
• “I’m not interested in strings of ReTweets from others, I prefer the original.”
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DO
• Leadership: o Demonstrate thought leadership & keen eyes for
good content and articles within an acceptable timeframe, but not every 5 or 10 minutes.
• “Please see a professional about your emotional insecurities if you feel the need to Tweet strings of 5 or 6 consecutive Tweets in a 10 or 20 minute span – otherwise known as spam.”
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DON’T
• Become a sheep: o Ensure you have a “following” to “follower” ration
of less than 1:1; better yet, shoot for 2:1
• “Do you comb Twitter and follow as many people as you can just so they can follow you? See the above about emotional insecurities. Honestly, if you’re a sheep, then your shallowness lowers your esteem in the eyes of others, and frankly, you look worse then if you never had a Twitter account.”
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DON’T
• Spam: o 3-6 Tweets per day spaced over the day is a good
rule of thumb
• “There’s no surer way to turn-off a follower than issuing lots of consecutive Tweets in short succession, many times per day. In fact, if you’re Tweeting more than 12 times per day then it better be meaningful or as entertaining as a Three’s Company rerun.”
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DON’T
• Gossip: o Occasional gossip and jokes are encouraged, just
keep it to a minimum and make sure it’s well-founded.
• “There’s enough fluff and crap on ET, TMZ and those other cesspools of anti-journalism; I avoid those, and avoid Tweeple who repeat it.”
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DON’T
• Forget your profile: o Strong, descriptive profile that uses keywords that
people might use to search you out (SEO)
• “Why would I follow you if I don’t know who you are, your expertise / interests lie, or worse, you try and disguise who you are?”
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DON’T
• Bad Tweets: o Twitter isn’t a replacement for conversation, so don’t try
and use it as a debating tool or the school sandbox.
• Examples: o “What’s up guys?” o “I just got a mocha and a biscotti. Yum!”o “I really think, and I’ve given this much sober thought,
that Britney Spears is a true, American hero … (blah, blah).”
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Consulting Help Web 2.0 Plan Intranet 2.0 Plan www.PrescientDigital.com
Resources
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Thursday, January 21Thursday, January 21““Government Websites” Government Websites”
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Next Webinar…
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Q & AQ & A
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Join the Conversation
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