coffee twalk two: communication strategies
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Coffee Twalk: 2 Communication
Strategies
May 5, 2009Robin Frank @robeen @greenrobeen
What is Twitter• Twitter asks one question, "What are you doing?" Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message,
or the web. • This is NOT just about ego - The most powerful use of Twitter is to make connections with others who share a similar interest.• Twitter can be used to update your blog, Facebook status, your website, and various other sources simultaneously.• Desktops - Tweetdeck, Twhirl, Friendfeed, etc.
The Twitterverse
• Traffic surges to 10 million registered users (6m in Jan 09)
• Biggest demographic: >35 (ComScore),
– matches Nielsen's assessment - majority of Facebook's user base.
– 45-54 years olds are 36% more likely than average to visit Twitter, followed by 25-34 years olds. (10% 55-64 = 18-24)
Basic Terms• Tweet: to post a message on Twitter • Follow: to subscribe to a Twitter user so you see their updates • @username: a reply sent in the public timeline so everyone else can see it• Direct Message (DM): a private message sent to another Twitter user• RT: Re-tweet: to re-post someone else’s tweet while attributing it to the original poster, build relationships, compliment and endorse others.
Basic Terms• #hashtags: great ways to tag your Twitter update on a specific subject. This way, followers and non-followers can find your update using the Twitter search box on the Twitter
homepage, or using one of the Trending Topics. – #ETF, #ishares, etc.
• URL shorteners: tinyurl.com/, bit.ly/, Bit.ly will show a history of your recent shortened URL’s, as well as the number of clicks this shortened URL has received, and also additional Bit.ly links that have been created for the article.
Listen: Monitor the Conversation
Monitor Brand Comments: Listen and
Learn• How often is your brand mentioned on Twitter?
– Monitor brand twitter comments, by hour, day, week, month.
• Is there ever a spike (positive or negative) in brand-related terms (in a week, day or even hourly)?
• Who are the most active Twitter users that are tweeting about your brand? Who are they communicating with the most?
– Are there some really good brand advocates out there?
– See what types of people have formed virtual communities. You might eventually consider contacting the key members of this virtual community to gather feedback/suggestions or to leverage them for brand promotion.
Monitor Brand Comments: Listen and
Learn• What are people saying about your brand?
– Are people posting links to news, writing about the brand, talking about a campaign, etc?
– Are people mentioning key product/service features that Product Managers should know about?– Is anyone bashing your brand or confusing the marketplace with mixed messages?– Track other brands - capture tweets about competitors side by side.
Tools• Free
• Search.twitter.com, Advanced
• Twazzup: more useful for business• Displays most popular tweets, includes trendmakers, and outbound links
• Alerts: Tweetbeep
• Dashboards: Tweetdeck, Twhirl, Seismic Desktop, Tweetgrid
• Blogs: Technorati and Blogpulse
• Boardreader - message boards
• Twist - see trends
Tweetbeep.com
Tools• For Purchase
• Radian6• Social Media monitoring, measurement and engagement for agencies.
• Trackur• Online reputation tracking technology - keep track of any web content that mentions your company/product name, your executives, your company brands, and even your competition.
• Scout Labs• Build better products and stronger customer relationships. Cutting-edge technology and a collaborative platform for companies to listen to customers and engage with them across the web.
Share of Conversation
• What are the needs or problems that your product is setting out to help with?• How do people discuss these needs or problems online?• When these problems are discussed, how prominent is your brand in these conversations?• For example - look at when people are talking about headaches, how often is Tylenol mentioned?• Other needs/problems we can measure too?
Building a Community and Creating Engagement
Follow• Follow:
– people you know– people they know– people who interest you– people who follow you (this is polite)– authors, bloggers, publications, analysts, influential people (i.e. social media strategists who will write about what you are doing), etc.
• Check out profiles first - scrutinize
• Integrate with website and email signatures – Follow us on Twitter button, widgets to integrate with your blog or website
Relationship Management
• Directories- Wefollow, Justweetit, Twellow, Geofollow
• Recommendations- Whoshouldifollow, Twubble- SocialWhoIs - based on relevance NOT popularity
• FriendFilter - improve the signal to noise ratio- Provide stats and data about messages, follow/not follow on the spot
• TwitDir - to find people• TweetPro - paid service, create a solid network based on keywords and interests.• Twinfluence: measure influencers by followers, reach, velocity, social capital, etc. Top 50 by category.
Not all Followers are Equal• Are your followers active? Active users share your links,
they give you feedback, they talk to you.
• Do the people who follow you have influence? Would you rather get 50 retweets from users with 10 to 100 random followers? Would you rather get 10 retweets from influencers in same niche, with all of them having 1000 to 10,000 very relevant followers?
• Tweet a link or idea and having someone with a blog in the same niche write about it and link to you? Some users can reach more people much faster and these are the ones that can help you.
Communication Strategies
• Who do I want to talk to?• What is interesting to them?• What do I want to say to them?• Align this with my marketing objectives!!!
What to Post• Link to other interesting info - stories, blogs, etc.• Link to your own website and blog articles, thought leadership, podcasts, etc.
• But have a real person contextualize it. The link is interesting only if the person posting it is credible, and making a judgment call about what is worth posting• Link to conferences and events• Gather feedback via polls, surveys or even by asking a simple question.• Create a daily idea or daily tip series• Be creative
– invent a contest, conduct a poll, document an exciting trip. surprise people with new ideas - anything novel that builds community, increases participation, and allows people to have fun is a winner.
What to Post• Associate the right keywords along with your tweets (searchable).• Plug into a top trend for 2009: “Buying Out” - consumers engaging in deconsumption to save money, or “Green” “Sustainable.” • Vary the content to include more “outside” information than sales pitches.• Break news - occasionally share company information and services without stating that is your intention.• Coming up with valuable information can sometimes be time consuming - consider retweeting messages posted by other people.• Make news: do something revolutionary, responsive, forward-thinking and you will get mainstream media attention.
Tips• Create a user-friendly Twitter ID - stay away from numbers or an underscore. As your community grows, you’ll have many names and IDs to remember. Throwing in numbers and underscores makes it more difficult.
• Communication Channel - what do you want to talk about? By listening first you can ID ways to join the conversation and be useful.
• Find the right voice - the Brand Voice” should reflect the personality traits of the brand.
• Become an authority - If you make yourself an authority on some topic being discussed in the Twitterverse, people will seek you out to be in the conversation - and that is evidence of influence. Find your niche and own it.
• ALIGN WITH YOUR MARKETING/BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Tips• Always have fun
– People use social media for many reasons, some more serious than others. But no one is immune from enjoying themselves. If all you do is post links to your latest influential blog, or link to current news stories you’re reading, you may be adding value, but you may also be boring everyone who follows you. Toss in an unexpected joke, complain about your dog, announce your engagement.
• Reward with shout-outs – When you see someone doing something awesome, give them a high-quality shoutout. Everyone loves hearing that they’re doing something awesome - and they also remember who thought this
in the first place.
Customer Service
Share links
Links to your site/events/podcasts
Link to relevant blog posts
Amplify/Spread News
Hold conversations
Reveal yourself - have fun
Acknowledge problems
Hold promotions and contests
Hold promotions and contests
@RCABob
As a Website - SkittlesExtreme Social Makeover: the official skittles website located at Skittles.com redirected their entire homepage to a twitter search for the term skittles on 3/2/09
Motrin Moms - Nov 08• Rejected by mothers in Twitter, spread to blogs and YouTube
• Collected tweets from offended moms and edited them into a video on YouTube titled "Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad,"
• Marketing VP responds with apology on site, takes down ad
• Not tuning in while you launch a new tactic borders on gross negligence, in this day and age.
Ashton Kutcher: Mosquito Net Challenge to CNN
Retail: Urban Outfitters
Retail: REI - Updates and Promos
Emergency: CDC Issues Swine Flu Alerts
Disaster Preparedness Services
Updates from Anywhere
Daily Tip Series
Useful Service
Gather Customer Feedback
Happy Hour/To Go Orders/Co-Marketing
Make News - Company Brand + Personality
Multiple posters
Personality/Updates
Understand Net Promoters and Net Detractors
Social CRM for Business• PeopleBrowsr
• Manage online relationships and communication in Twitter and across multiple social networks.• Turns your web browser into a social media dashboard• No download or browser plug-in
• CoTweet and Splitweet• Platform to listen/communicate with customers and influencers• Manage multiple accounts on one dashboard• Multiple simultaneous users can monitor conversations and assign action
• OutTwit• Update Twitter from Outlook, establish search criteria and channel into dedicated Outlook folders
PR 2.0• @MicroPR
• Connects journalists, bloggers, analysts, and other influencers to PR. • Anyone in PR, communications, blogger relations, community management, analyst relations, should follow @microPR on Twitter. • Any journalist, reporter, blogger, analyst, or anyone looking for the help of someone in PR, should tweet @microPR with your request, and PR people will see
the rebroadcast through the micropr account with your Twitter name.
Twitip• Twitter is the darling of the developer community
– Brian Solis: PR 2.0
• Tweetlater - schedule tweets
• Post photos with TwitPic
• Mobile apps like Tweetie keep you connected
• Automatic blog post announcement
• Automatic FB updates
• Ping.fm
• Mashable, Techcrunch
