DIGITAL WORD OF MOUTH:TEN STEPS TO TWITTER SUCCESSS

Kendra Wright, Saffire EventsTroy Bowers, Amador County Fair

PRESENTERS

Kendra WrightPresidentSaffire Events

Experience:• Began building

websites in 1995 for Fortune 1000

• Started online consulting company in 1998

• Helps events have a great online presence

Troy BowersCEOAmador County Fair

Experience:• CEO of Amador County

Fair, the #1 small county fair

• “Seasoned” fair professional

• Second generation fair manager; have worked most every job on the fairgrounds

• In 1978, first company to computerize junior livestock auctions

HISTORY

SAFFIRE EVENTS

SAFFIRE EVENTS (continued)

POLL

How many of you have a Twitter account for your event?

How many of you have a personal Twitter account?

AGENDA

Set up your Twitter accountCustomize your Twitter pageFigure out who to followTweeting ideas and strategy

Who to tweet about!Advanced Twitter maneuversManaging TweetsTwitter analytics

STEP 1: SET UP TWITTER

No more than 15 characters in UsernameExample: Amador County Fair

• Too many characters: @AmadorCountyFair• Use: @AmadorFair• Use your real business name so search engines &

customers can find you

SAFFIRE RECOMMENDATIONInclude your state in your username if you need to

differentiate yourself!

SET UP PERSONAL ACCOUNT TOO

It’s a good place to “practice”But be careful!• KitchenAid debate disaster

Follow different people on personal vs. business, so it’s obvious what account

AmadorFair

WHO TO FOLLOW IN SET UP

When you set up your account, just follow the minimum - Industry associations & businesses• IAFE @IAFE• IFEA @IFEAworld• State/regional organization

@WesternFairs• Saffire Events @SaffireEvents

STEP 2: CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE

Edit Profile• Add a photo (logo)

o Get 10x more followers

• Add a bio (mission – make it fun)o Get 8x more followers

Customize your design• Use your website background

NEW! ADD A HEADER

Make a file that is1200 x 600It will be a background behind:• Twitter name• Bio• Location• URLJust another way to convey your brandUpload it to Profile/Design

STEP 3: DO A FEW RETWEETS

Retweet people you follow• Look through your timeline• At first, this is just to get your feet wet• Give people a taste of what’s to come

STEP 4: FOLLOW SOME PEOPLE

Events similar to yoursBig eventsPeople involved in your eventLocal businessesJust for fun

SAFFIRE RECOMMENDATIONDon’t follow too many until you have tweeted

and have a branded page!

EVENTS SIMILAR TO YOURS

Nevada County FairChowchilla-Madera Co FairCalaveras County FairMotherlode Fair, Tuolumne CountyDel Norte County Fair

LARGE EVENTS ON YOUR RADAR

San Diego County FairAlameda County FairCalifornia Expo and State FairSan Joaquin County FairStanislaus County Fair

PEOPLE INVOLVED IN YOUR EVENT

SponsorsVendorsEntertainersVolunteersExhibitorsBoard members

AMADOR EXAMPLES

Jumbo Shrimp CircusAmador County Fair FoundationAmador Music Hub – local musicians connectionAmador Wine Grape growersJackson Rancheria Casino & HotelJunior LivestockLions and Rotary Clubs

LOCAL BUSINESSES

Local businesses• Amador (county)• Plymouth (city)

Local press

SAFFIRE RECOMMENDATIONPilfer from those we are following & our followers!

JUST FOR FUN

If you don’t have a personal accountJust for fun/personality• Backyard tomato farmer• Amateur beer and wine maker• Hiking and biking

SAFFIRE RECOMMENDATIONFollow people on a Tuesday morning; there may be

better chance they’ll follow you back.

FINDING MORE PEOPLE TO FOLLOW

Who to follow – View All (based on interests)Find friends – if you have:• Gmail• Yahoo• Hotmail• AOL

People you may know (who your friends follow)

It’s a chicken and the egg: people don’t follow people without tweets, but you’ll get better bang for buck once you have more followers

Tweet what you think will be helpful to your target audience• Don’t be too self-serving

STEP 5: WRITE SOME TWEETS

Website changes/blog posts/email articlesTestimonialsPhotos/Videos“Insider info”News of weird/human interest storiesContestsQuestions

WHAT TO POST

Tweets between 120-130 characters get the highest click-through rates

Tweets containing via, RT, please and check had higher click-through rates

Tweet on the weekends (more on that shortly)

TRICKS AND TIPS FOR TWEETS

Twitter Hashtag Definition (courtesy of Mashable):

The hashtag is a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone uses a certain hashtag to tweet about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and is more likely to appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Saffire Definition AddendumMany also use hashtags to add something parenthetical/funny at the end of a tweet

THE ART OF THE HASHTAG

Hashtags preferred by Olympics: #London2012 #Olympics #GoUSA

THE ART OF THE HASHTAG: BAD

Jimmy Fallon tweets out a hashtag, and people tweet funny responses#FactCheck

THE ART OF THE HASHTAG: FUN

You can't!

ENSURE ADOPTION OF A HASHTAG

POST it – relevant places on your website/blog

PUBLICIZE it – Twitter feed, regularly and consistently

PRINT it – event materials, at your event, etc.

STEP 6: PROMOTE TWITTER &

HASHTAGS

SAFFIRE RECOMMENDATIONMake it easy for your customers

to find, adopt and promote it.

Favorites (from Profile page)Lists• Create public or private• Subscribe to others

Replying to tweets• People can track “conversation”

Deleting tweets

“ADVANCED” TWITTER MANEUVERS

POLL

Do you use a program to manage your Twitter and/or Facebook posts?

STEP 7: MANAGE YOUR TWEETS

TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER

STEP 8: GO ABOUT YOUR DAY

Install Firefox extension• While you are online reading articles,

don’t just post them; highlight text and click Buffer icon at bottom right to tweet

EVEN WHEN YOU’RE MOBILE

STEP 9: TWEET ABOUT YOUR PEOPLE

Now you follow “your people”You may have even retweeted some of themNow start writing original tweets about them• Be ruthless: Keep track of how many followers

THEY have, and tweet about those who have the most followers – include @ (Twitter name)!e.g., @saffireevents

• Your goal, especially while you don’t have many followers, is to get retweeted. So think like people you tweet about. Hint: People tend to retweet when you say nice things about them.

SPECIFIC IDEAS

Send opening day congrats to other fairs

Judiciously promote big sponsors for retweet

Same with vendors and entertainers

Post thanks to people/groups; they’ll repost

TWITONOMY

STEP 10: TWEAK & REPEAT

Check BufferApp or Twitonomy analytics.

Write down topics that had the most reach. • Do more of those.

Write down topics that had the least reach.• Do less of those.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!

We will send you slides!

Questions?