Twitter for SMEs

Intersocial

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Get Started

1 - Creating a Twitter account

- Personalize your profile

- Start Tweeting

Understand how Twitter works so your business can actively and effectively join the conversation.

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Creating a Twitter accountAccess Twitter’s website by typing the following address in your web browser: http://twitter.com

Company account: Represents the company as a whole. Use this type of account to:• Keep your customer base up to date on your ‐ ‐events• Promote recent blog articles or news• Update your consumers about products/services• Give real time updates at conferences and ‐events

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Making your Twitter handle as close to your company’s name as possible will make it easier for people to recognize you at a conference or event.

Using your real company’s name on Twitter helps your company looks like real and authentic.

DO!Ideas for Twitter Handles:1) Your full company’s name (i.e. BerrisSA)2) A variation of your name (i.e. Berris)3) A combination of your products and your company (i.e. BerrisCookies)

DON’T!

Don’t make your Twitter handle something completely random (i.e. CatWoman). This is a lost branding opportunity for you and your company.

Don’t use numbers (i.e. DMOD123). Unless there is a reason for the specific numbers, it looks juvenile. It also conjures the old AOL chat room days. It gives you the appearance that you aren’t putting thought into your username.

Don’t use an underscore (i.e. DMOD_Lab). Using an underscore generally is never done. Use at risk of seeming unaware of the “social norms.”

5Adding your interests and your friends

Find people &

companies

Follow a profile List of profiles

that you follow

You can now start to customize your profile. Twitter will suggest you topics that might interest you, and you can also search for other topics. To follow a profile, click on the “follow” icon next to it. If you change your mind, simply click on the “following/unfollow” icon.

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After you choose your handle and click “Next,” it will bring you to a screen asking to check if your email contacts are already on Twitter. If you have a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL account, feel free to see if anyone you know is already signed up. (However, this is not a required step. Feel free to skip.) If you do decide to check, beware of the prompt asking if you’d like to invite them all to Twitter. This will send a message all your contacts. Only do this if you want to.

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Confirming your account!You should now have received an email from Twitter to confirm your email address. Tofinalize your account, make sure you confirm it by clicking on the link you were sent.

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Personalize your profile

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With millions of accounts already activated, to stand out from the crowd, you must create an original account to attract followers.

1. Click on the “Profile” thumbnail and select a picture from your computer that will be used as your profile picture, for instance the logo of your company.

2. Write a few words about your company in the “Bio” field. Remember this can only be up to 160 characters. Write about your business, the kind of messages you will post and about yourself. Keep it short and appealing. Having a well-written, appealing bio is very important.It is generally the first piece of information other users will see.

3. When you are done, click on “Done”.

Design every element of your profile to best reflect your business. Your name, bio, website and profile picture should all work together to tell your story.

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In the top right corner of the main page, you can see an “gear” icon.

Clicking on this opens a menu, click on “Edit profile”.

Your profile is where you can reference your company, your blog, talk about your interests and list your location.The first item in your profile is your name. Always list your real name when using Twitter for business.You wouldn’t introduce yourself with a fake name at a tradeshow. Why should you do it here?

For your URL, or web address, it’s best practice always to include a link. Put a link to your:• Company website• Blog• Personal website• LinkedIn Profile

Also make sure to list your location. Many people follow back those located in their geographic area to expand their local network. Put it in standard City, State format so it can be picked up by lists for your area. Don’t lose out on this opportunity.

The last option in profile settings is the “Post your Tweets to Facebook”. By clicking this, your Tweets will automatically post to your Facebook wall.

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We recommend putting your real name in your profile

List your City and State. This is a great opportunity to

connect with people in your geographic area.

Add your blog or company website here. If you don’t

have one, list the address to your LinkedIn profile.

Be descriptive in your bio. Put your company’s name, your position or hobbies.

We recommend to click this button that will allow you to quickly and easily link your

Twitter account to your Facebook account. The button,

when clicked, will ask you to enter your Facebook

credentials and then link the two accounts, allowing your

Tweets to cross-post to Facebook as status updates.

Select a photo of yourself or your company’s logo! Avoid

to look like spammers!

11To further personalize the look of your Twitter profile, go to the Design to create a customized theme or background. Play with the different colors that represent your company’s logo!

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Establishing guidelines

By now, your Twitter account has a nice customized outlook and is ready to be shown to the world. Because Twitter users need to keep interacting with each other, it is important that there is always someone in your company managing your Twitter account and its updates. If more than one person is in charge of updating your posts on Twitter, you need to establish clear guidelines in order to ensure consistency in the tone and the type of information you want to share. Furthermore, you need to keep a log of your posts – or “Tweets – to prevent the posting of the same piece of information several times or that some are never published.

13Bring your account to life Over time, your Tweets will convey your own voice and style. Don’t be afraid to let your personality come through, or that of your employees. Of course, business styles vary. As you keep using Twitter, you’ll find your voice.

It’s very likely that your employees are tweeting from their own personal accounts. As a business owner, you can retweet or mention them when what they are tweeting about meshes nicely with your business’ interests and goals.

When you’re tweeting on behalf

of your company, write in a casual

and friendly tone.

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Start Tweeting

Types of tweets:1) An observation: Tweet about what you’re doing, thinking or feeling

2) What you’re reading: Post a link to an interesting blog post or news article

3) What you’re watching: Post a link to a cool video from Hulu or YouTube

4) What events you’re going to: Share a link to the next conference you plan to attend

5) Promote your content: Post a link to your most recent company or personal blog article

6) Promote someone else’s content: Post a link to someone else’s blog article as a helpful resource

7) Chat with someone: Send messages using an @ sign (to be explained later)

8) Retweet what someone else has said: Retweet (using RT or Retweet in the beginning of the message) to repeat what someone else has said

Remember that everything you say is public! Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say at a networking event. Even if you delete a tweet, it might still be archived on the Internet and could be found.

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Start tweeting by typing into message box (1) or by clicking the blue button on the right top of your page (2) and then type into message box (3).

Tweet what you’re thinking/ doing/ observing/ reading etc.

16Anatomy of a TweetTweets are the building blocks of your communications on Twitter. You’ll be surprised by how much you can say with 140 characters or less.

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1. HASHTAG A hashtag is any word beginning with the # sign. People use hashtags to organize conversations around a specific topic. Clicking on a hashtag takes you to search results for that term. 2. MENTION Sometimes you want to bring a Tweet to someone’s attention, but you still want all of your followers to see the message. So instead of a reply, use a mention. Include the @username of whomever you want to mention in your Tweet, and it will appear in the Mentions section (in the Connect tab). All @username mentions are clickable and link back to the mentioned individual’s profile.

3. REPLY You can respond to a Tweet by hitting the reply button. When you reply, your response is public, and will show up in your home timeline and the timeline of the person to whom you are responding. The reply will also be visible in the home timelines of people who follow both you and the person to whom you sent the reply. Meaning, someone not in the conversation has to follow both of the people replying to be able to read both sides of the conversation. 4. RETWEET You can pass along someone’s Tweet by retweeting it. Just hit the retweet button to send the original message to all of your followers. 5. LINKS Twitter’s link-shortening feature allows you to paste a link of any length into the Tweet box and it will automatically be shortened to 19 characters. This makes it easier to fit long URLs into the 140 character limit.

A direct message (DM) is a private

message. You can only send a DM to

individuals you follow who also

follow you.

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Engage your audience

2 - Find people to follow

- Get people to follow you

- Your voice

- Make it a habit

- Tweet something sharable

The right content converts people into customers, and turns customers into advocates.

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Find people to follow

Building your network is the most challenging and time consuming ‐part of using Twitter. Expanding your network doesn’t happen immediately; you need to commit and take the time to use Twitter effectively. By following people, you will receive their updates on a regular basis in your Twitter stream. This is your chance to learn about their lives, check out the blog posts they are reading and meet the people they interact with. Following a good sized community can be ‐valuable and fun!

19But where can you find people you would want to follow?

You can save your searches by

clicking on the options wheel and choosing

“save search.” Your saved

searches are available anytime.

Search keywords associated with your

business

Use advanced search to limit the results to a

location

Follow and learn from other businesses

Select People results to see a list of accounts that

match your search

When you first join Twitter, it’s a good idea to follow and observe businesses similar to yours to see what they are doing well, and to learn from their mistakes.

“To follow” someone means that you are subscribing to their stream of Tweets, and will automatically receive their Tweets in your timeline. When someone follows you, your Tweets will show up in their timeline. Twitter has an asymmetrical follower model, which means that you do not need to “approve” of the people who follow you, and they do not need to “approve” of you. However, you will likely want to follow back most of the people who follow your business. This acknowledges them, and enables them to send you direct messages.

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Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com): This free resource is a search function that helps you find people who are tweeting about specific words. For example, you can find people who have tweeted about “public relations.” Follow people talking about the topics you enjoy. Also, use Twitter Search to see who has tweeted about your company.

Follow People Your Followers are Following: Once you begin receiving updates from a handful of people, watch to see whom those people chat with using an @reply. Maybe that person would be fun to follow as well!

Follow Thought Leaders and Bloggers: See if any of your favorite bloggers are on Twitter. Many bloggers include a link to their Twitter account in their sidebar or personal info section on their website.

Collect People’s Twitter Names at Events: Many social media people will include their Twitter handle on their nametag at an event. Write down their names and follow them later. You can find their Twitter account by adding their handle to the end of http://twitter.com/USERNAME.

Follow Hashtags (#) at Events: At many events, the organizer will establish a hashtag (i.e. #IMS08 was the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit), so anyone tweeting at the event can include the hashtag (#) in their Tweet. Follow those people who are at the same event as you who you may not have met in person yet.

DO!

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Don’t follow too many people at once: Best practice is to follow no more than 25 50 people a ‐day, because there will be a time gap between following people and having them follow you back. If your profile says you are following 2,000 people and only 30 followers have followed you back so far, it appears that 1970 of those who you followed chose not to follow you back. This unfavorable ratio makes you look like a bad person to add to one’s network. Wait a little bit to give people the chance to follow you back before finding a new batch of people to add to your network.

Don’t follow hundreds of people at once and remove all who don’t follow you back: Although many people do this in order to have a “valuable ratio” (or more followers than people you’re following), it is artificial network building and not a best practice.

DON’T!

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Get people to follow you

Following people and receiving their updates is great, but in order to have valuable two way conversations, you need people to follow you ‐back and receive your updates too. This is why it is so important to get your profile fully set up before reaching out for new connections. If you follow someone who doesn’t already know you, you need to have sufficient information about you in your profile so that person can make the decision whether to follow you back or not.

Having followers is important, because they are your network who will see your tweets. Think of your total number of followers as your Twitter reach.

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Make your company’s Twitter usernames easy to find. Create a page that lists all the Twitter handles of the people in your company. By giving your customers an easy way to interact with individual people, it helps them get to know the type of people who work at your company. It also gives insight to your brand!

Make your tweets useful resources so people need you. You are what you tweet. People will want to follow you if they think they will get value from your content. You want to avoid making your Twitter account purely a promotional tool. Would you subscribe to a newsletter if it didn’t have anything useful to say? What specialty knowledge do you have that you can share?

Interact with those people you follow who don’t follow you back yet. Make sure to monitor your Twitter stream, and comment on what people are saying. Give feedback; compliment people. The key is to engage.

DO!

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Your voice

Be yourself.

Give them something more.

Too often, businesses are overly formal on Twitter. Your Tweets should reflect your personality. People respond best to friendly, conversational Tweets.

Use Twitter to convey insights and information about your company that your customers can’t find elsewhere.

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Your VoiceBe responsive.

Reply when people tweet about you. Favorite and retweet positive messages, and thank those who are praising you. Promptly address critical Tweets about your business.

Some conversations need to be taken offline. If there is too much back and forth between you and your customer, or the exchanges become too specific for your timeline, ask the follower to send you a direct message (DM) with contact information so you can communicate further by email or phone.

TIP Download Twitter for your mobile device at twitter.com/download so you can stay engaged with your customers on the go.

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Make it a habit

Small ideas work as well as big ones for

tweeting. You might retweet

someone, thank a customer or talk

about what’s happening in your

community.

People wonder how often they should tweet, but there isn’t one “right” answer. Tweeting every five minutes might be too often and tweeting only weekly is very likely too infrequent. At first, make a goal of tweeting once a day. Over time, you’ll see what works best for the amount of content you want to share and for your particular business.

Just because Twitter happens in real time, it doesn’t mean you can’t look ahead. Think about your important upcoming events — product launches, holidays or seasonal events — and see how you can incorporate Twitter into your plans.

TIPFollow reporters and news outlets that cover your topics, and retweet their relevant comments and insights. Not only will you provide interesting content to your followers; some of those reporters will follow you back.

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Tweet something sharable

Before you write a Tweet, consider

how your followers will respond. Will

they want to reply, favorite, watch or share that Tweet?

INCLUDE A PHOTO A descriptive Tweet with a photo will not only get clicks, it will inspire retweets. Think of the words in the Tweet as a setup and the photo as the punchline.

QUESTION + ANSWER Pose a question in your Tweet and then answer it with a link. For example: - “What are the top ten reasons that people buy a new car? Answer: link to a blog post about the subject.” - “Who wore it best? Fashion experts explain: link to fashion website or magazine.” - “Improve your golf swing in ten minutes! Here’s how: link to professional golfer’s tips and tricks.”

SHARE VIDEOS ON TWITTER Add a video to a Tweet automatically by including the URL. Links for YouTube, Vimeo and many other services will play directly in an expanded Tweet.

ADD A QUOTE Inspire your followers with a pertinent quotation from history, literature, pop culture or your own industry. You’ll encourage retweets if you choose a quotation that your followers see as helpful or inspirational for their followers.

TIPFollow people from outside your industry to get ideas about interesting content. Be sure to give writers credit when repeating their content in a Tweet.

Understand why people share things to create better Tweets.

People tend to share positive Tweets that

solve a problem, answer a question,

entertain or inspire. On Twitter, we see

the most retweeted content tends to

contain links, photos, videos or

quotes. When you Tweet something interesting, it has

the potential to travel to many

prospective customers.

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Amplify your impact

3 - Promote your Twitter @username

- Use your followers to get more followers

- Work with others

- Measure your impact

Grow your audience to extend your reach.

29Promote your Twitter @username

TIPFeature your @username on your website and blog. Visit twitter.com/about/resources to download Twitter’s logos and see our brand guidelines for use.

There are many ways to promote your Twitter @username online and offline: business cards, signage, advertising, delivery vehicles, product packaging, storefronts, email, your website, etc. Anywhere your customers interact with your brand is an opportunity to encourage them to follow you on Twitter.

30Use your followers to get more followers

Offer an incentive. Create Tweets that encourage your followers to retweet. One simple method is to announce that you’ll offer a discount to everyone who retweets your offer, but only if you get a total number of retweets (like 10 or 25).

Offer your customers a reward if they mention your business — a discount, free trial, or extra service — whatever makes sense for your company. It’s a good idea to include a link to the terms and conditions of your offer in the Tweet.

If you have a store, ask people show you the Tweet on their phones at checkout. If you sell online, DM the follower with a discount code that you can track at checkout.

TIP People are more likely to retweet an offer that provides value to their own followers.

When your followers retweet your content -or when they tweet about you- they extend your reach to their followers.

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Work with others

Create a conversation.

When the 2010 World Series was played in Arlington, Texas and San Francisco, California, it was no surprise that the baseball fans from both cities tweeted up a storm. Surprisingly, so did each city’s major art museum: San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art challenged Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum to a tweet-off. Texas responded, mentioning both baseball teams and using hashtags that were a part of the larger sports conversation. Then the competing teams started retweeting the museums’ Tweets, and fans of both joined in the fun. Through local pride, the museums found common ground with the ball clubs and the competitive fun that comes with a major league sport.

Connect with other businesses online.

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Measure your impact

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE SUCCESSFUL? One common way to track success on Twitter is to look at the growth rate of your follower base. This number shows that you’re increasing your audience -and your ability to connect with more customers. But there are other indicators of success to consider:

• See if people are retweeting or favoriting your Tweets.

• Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic is coming from Twitter, which show up as t.co (this is Twitter’s link-shortening service).

• Create special Twitter-only promotions to bring in new customers, or bring regulars back more often.

• Finally, ask your customers: Are they following you on Twitter? Do they enjoy it?

By measuring and monitoring your impact on Twitter, you’ll develop more effective ways to engage your audience, and ultimately grow your business.

We’ll present you a number of monitoring tools that you can use to measure your Twitter impact in the next Tutorial.

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Using Twitter

4 - Twitter for Marketing

- Twitter for Public Relations

- Twitter for Customer Service

Communication and Marketing.

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Twitter for Marketing

1. Use Twitter to drive people to your company’s website. Tweet about interesting resources your employees have posted on your blog or website. Have you recently published a white paper that people can download for free? Tweet about it, linking back to the download page on your website. If the content on your site is truly remarkable, people may start tweeting about it on their own! They can share your resource to their friends on Twitter.

2. Monitor your brand on Twitter. Using the aforementioned Twitter Search tool, you can search and track what people are saying about your company, products, competitors or any other hot words in your industry. Set up an RSS feed to receive all search results in Google Reader. If you find someone tweeting about your products or a person who is looking for a solution that your product provides, let them know!

3. Use the Twitter “Favorites” feature as a list of company testimonials. To the left of each tweet in your Twitter stream, there is a little star. When you click the little star, that tweet gets added to your Favorites Tab. As you track what people are saying about your company in Twitter Search, favorite all of the positive tweets. Third party testimonials are valuable by showing the public what other people think of ‐your company. The next time someone asks about your company, send them the link to your Favorites page. The URL for this page will be http://twitter.com/USERNAME/favorites.

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4. Use Twitter to promote events. Tweet ups are a great way to get to know your Twitter community ‐offline. The next time your company holds an event, fundraiser or open house, tweet about it! Best practice is to send people directly to an event sign up page. Think of a hashtag for your event before you ‐start tweeting about it. Selecting a hashtag for your own event will be beneficial in a few ways:

a) During the event, people often use the hashtag while live tweeting, or tweeting what they see/hear in ‐real time. The hashtag will aggregate the event tweets, building an online conversation around the event.‐

b) People who are not at the event will see your hashtag and perhaps use it too. A popular #hashtag often sparks curiosity, and people will go to http://search.twitter.com to follow the conversation around the event.

5. Use Twitter to promote new tools. Twitter users love new toys, especially if they create some sort of outcome, grade or analysis of the person using the tool. Make the results of your tool/grader as easy to Tweet as possible. Perhaps you could add a “Tweet this grade” function. Make sure your tool is as easy to share as possible!

6. Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. By tweeting about useful resources and thoughtful tips, you and your company will eventually develop thought leadership, and people will consider you an expert in that particular subject. Be sure to link to your own resources as well as others.

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Twitter for Public Relations

1. Develop relationships with reporters, bloggers and other media people through Twitter. Reporters and big time bloggers are incredibly active in social networks, especially when gathering information for ‐stories. Two resources that have a great list of the media people on Twitter are:

Media Outlets: https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+Outlets+Using+Twitter

Media People: https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+People+Using+Twitter, http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.com

2. Watch for tweets about editorial opportunities. Because the nature of Twitter is very quick response, ‐it’s a great place for media people to look for last minute, additional resources for their stories. When ‐following bloggers and reporters on Twitter, keep close track of their tweets and scan for any opportunities. It’s also a great idea to send reporters tips to other links and resources simply to be helpful and improve your relationship with the media person, even if it’s in regard to another company. The media person will be thankful for your help and more likely use you as a reference when the subject is applicable to you!

3. Direct Message reporters instead of sending them an email. By sending a direct message, you are forced to create a short concise pitch that a reporter is more likely to read. Also, direct messages are very casual, and some media folks prefer DMs to email pitches. Also, it saves you the time it would normally take to write a lengthy pitch. Remember, you can only DM people if they follow you back. However, don’t pitch too much; they could easily unfollow you making it much more difficult to connect.

4. Use Twitter to check in on your media person before PR pitching. Check to see what the person you’re about to pitch is up to before contacting them. In the event that the person is sick, having a bad day or away on travel—it may be best to contact him or her at another time.

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Twitter for Customer Service

1. Respond to concerns people tweet about your company or products. Designate a specific person in your company to track your company name and products in Twitter Search. That person can address any negative comments, give feedback and help customers solve their products in real time. The speedy response will impress the customer! Comcast at http://twitter.com/ComcastCares does a great job tracking and addressing customer concern.

2. Use your company account to update customers with any temporary down time‐ . If you work for a company that offers an online service, let your followers know if you anticipate down time or if there is a ‐glitch you are working to fix. Your customers will be less upset and more appreciative that your company is trying its best to relieve the problem.

3. Be sure to follow back everyone who follows your Company Account. Although it’s acceptable to pick and choose whom you want to follow back in your personal account, there’s no reason to limit who your company follows. Also, the added benefit of following back everyone who follows your company account is the ability to DM you.

4. Do not send an auto direct message whenever someone new follows you or your company. It’s easy to get into the trap of automating your Twitter activity. Many people will set up an auto direct message (or auto DM) to be sent to every new follower. This looks artificial, and could make you appear apathetic about building true relationships with your customers.

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Conclusion

5 - Twitter in 10 points

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Twitter in 10 points

1. Check and participate in Twitter every day

2. Post what you would read

3. Proofread before you post

4. Keep a nice and friendly tone

5. Never ignore users interacting with you (except trolls and spammers)

6. Keep a professional image

7. Promote your business subtly

8. Be creative and innovative

9. Make the first step to make new contacts

10.Keep up to date with the new terminology and customs

References

Twitter Tutorials:Twitter for Small Business

Other Tutorials:HubSpot, How to Use Facebook for Business: An Introductory Guide

Jean-Christophe Barré, Dr. Andreas Schroeter, Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing

John Jantsch, Using Twitter for Business

Twitter Profile:DMOD Laboratory