i'm on twitter: now what?

I’M ON TWITTER… NOW WHAT?Frederick Chamber of Commerce

New Media & Technology Conference

February 24, 2011

SO YOU’RE ON TWITTER… NOW WHAT?

Nuts and Bolts Measurement Avoiding “Advanced Mistakes” Q&A

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NUTS AND BOLTS:SET CLEAR GOALS

Sample goals DVC: “Enhance DVC’s reputation as an

industry/thought leader.” How? 3:1 industry vs. company info. ratio (minimum)

DVC: “Support recruiting and retention efforts” How? Tweets promoting positive corporate culture, jobs

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“What’s in it for my audience?”

NUTS AND BOLTS:SET CLEAR GOALS Sample goals

APHL: Increase awareness of what public health laboratories (PHLs) do to promote the public’s health

How? Share news, blog posts, and other bits of information that help people become familiar with PHLs

Become a trusted source for public health news How? Post news stories that are of interest to the public;

establish relationships with reporters, bloggers, etc.

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NUTS AND BOLTS:KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

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NUTS AND BOLTS:KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Ask questions periodically Know what works. Keep track of popular

tweets offer more of that type of content

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NUTS AND BOLTS:SHAPE YOUR AUDIENCE

Be willing to block people Don’t be afraid to invite others to follow you Consider third-party apps to clean up your

business account FriendorFollow.com – See who is following you

that you aren’t following back, and vice versa

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NUTS AND BOLTS:SHAPE YOUR AUDIENCE

Keep track of where you’re listed

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MEASUREMENT:START WITH CLEAR GOALS

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Clear goals = easier measurement What are you trying to accomplish? Evaluate your progress for each goal monthly Make adjustments where you’re not seeing

results

MEASUREMENT:WHAT ABOUT ROI?

ROI is probably not right for you Financial term Return on investment = % of dollars returned on a

given investment (cost) If you have to make up a lot of numbers to

measure ROI, is your measurement really meaningful?

May work for online retailers (conversion tracking) Think about how you measure more traditional

media channels. Are you putting undue emphasis on measuring

social media? Measure what is important to you – This will help

justify your social media presence at this point.

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MEASUREMENT:START WITH THE BASICS

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Examples of things to measure Most clicked tweets (Hootsuite, bit.ly) Re-tweeted tweets (Patterns? Popular topics?) Offline/ personal interactions

@ replies and DMs may lead to new customers/business partners

“Expert” requests (media interviews, guest blogging opportunities, editorial board positions, etc.)

Number of followers (with caution) Example measurable objective

Increase RTs per 1,000 followers from 0.5 % in Q1 to 10% by the end of Q2.*

*Example from Don Bartholomew (link)

MEASUREMENT:FREE TOOLS

Some popular options Hootsuite – track clicks, mentions TweetDeck – track mentions, retweets Klout – scores for reach, amplification and network OneForty.com – social business hub Twitalyzer

Cautions: General consensus is that none of these tools is a

catch-all (yet). Use a couple of them, but trust your own criteria first.

Free tools may not remain that way, and there’s no guarantee they will continue to exist.

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15Hootsuite measurement screenshot

16Klout measurement screenshots

“ADVANCED MISTAKES”

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Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

“ADVANCED MISTAKES”

Don’t overthink Twitter Don’t just talk about yourself

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“ADVANCED MISTAKES” Know who you’re talking to

Starting a tweet with an @ reply means only you, the person you are mentioning and your *mutual* followers will see it Add a . in front if you want all your followers to see your

reply

Hashtag mania Hashtags categorize tweets – they link tweets

together into one conversation. Use wisely!Bad Tweet: 1st #rabies case in #AlamanceCounty, #NC this year was

confirmed by the #publichealth #lab in #Raleigh http://bit.ly/fqmEOc

Keywords allow users to search Twitter for tweets using certain terms similarly to a Google search.

Good Tweet: 1st #rabies case in Alamance County, NC this year was confirmed by the public health lab in Raleigh http://bit.ly/fqmEOc

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REFERENCE: TWITTER TOOLS Helpful Tools to Improve the Twitter Experience

TweetDeck – www.tweetdeck.com HootSuite – www.hootsuite.com Twhirl/Seesmic – www.seesmic.com Mobile Apps – search for “Twitter” URL shorteners – for example, bit.ly OneForty - http://oneforty.com/

These tools make it much easier to navigate the Twitter “stream.” You can: Organize people you follow into categories See DMs at a glance Receive audio and/or visual alerts for @ replies, DMs Streamline your Twitter experience

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REFERENCES Bartholomew, D. Social Media Metrics: 5 Things to Learn in 2011.

2011 Jan 11. http://www.ragan.com/SocialMedia/Articles/

Social_media_metrics_5_things_to_learn_in_2011__42617.aspx

Paine, KD. True Tales from the Social Media Measurement Trenches – Using Research to Learn and Improve Our Programs [presentation]. 2008 PRSA International Conference. 2008 Oct 28.

PRSA National Capital Chapter. Getting to Great: National Capital Chapter’s APR Prep Guide. 2008 Sept.

Finnen, A. and Luck, L. “Using Twitter for Business.” Presentation to Frederick New Media & Technology Conference. February 19, 2010.

Finnen, A. Be Human: Building and Measuring Profitable B2B Customer Relationships Through Social Media http://www.csc.com/dvc/news/52009-

be_human_building_measuring_b2b_relationships_with_social_media

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QUESTIONS? (AND HOW TO FIND US)

Michelle Forman Association of Public Health Laboratories

www.aphl.org michelle.forman@aphl.org @APHLnews and @eatniks

April Finnen DynPort Vaccine Company LLC, A CSC Company

www.csc.com/dvc afinnen@csc.com @dynport and @AprilFin

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