Catching the Next Generation of Business Lane Sutton

What is Twitter? A microblogging platform. A tweet is a status update that is limited to 140 characters and your followers who subscribe to your tweets, will receive it. It will also display in Twitter search, and on the web. Share in real-time links, information, articles, thoughts with the web (directly, privately, publicly) `

Twitter by the Numbers Close to 300 million users. 66.5% of businesses have adopted SM in past 18 mos. 50% of U.S. businesses use Twitter to engage and inform existing customers. 80% of Twitter engagement is link-clicking. 52% of Americans have a social media profile. 43% of U.S. businesses using SoMe receive new business.

Man tweeted photo of “Miracle on the Hudson” Through that picture taken minutes within the situation - CNN was able to break the story.

Tweets per Day Now: Over 140 million tweets sent per day.

Best Practices Make two-way connections. (You should be talking to others, have conversations, engaging, and they should talk to you - not one way) Be personable, the seriousness is now gone. It is all about adding that touch. Don’t over-promote. Don’t be a broadcaster. Be a creator, connector, and engager.

Trust and Buying Decisions! 83% of adults trust opinions of a friend/acquaintance who has used the product or service. One in three Internet users say purchase decisions are swayed by social media content.

Twitter Wins on Clicks Twitter gets the most clicks for links, and users love to circulate content.

The 80/20 Rule The 80% represents talking with others, engaging with them, and not yourself. The 20% is for you! Do little promotion with this, but rather tweet out relevant content to your brand (that others will like). Don’t yell!

Answering Questions Twitter users are loyal to brands, but they want an answer. Many use Twitter as a second method of communication, if phone or don’t work quickly as 5% say. Especially the more influential a user is, the more it will impact your business (good or bad). They could complain, or rave about answering their question or the good service they received.

Answering Questions

Audience Demographics 1/3 of monthly users are years old.

Timing Between 11 am and 5pm are the most popular active tweeting times. Later in the day, and later in the week are the most re-tweetable times. CTR highest mid-week and weekends, and at noon and 6 pm.

Listen! “Grow bigger ears.” -Chris Brogan Listen for your brand, see what others are saying. Good or bad? Answer questions, engage with customers (existing, potential, and past).

ROI? The ROI is calculated from monitoring your conversations, your relationships built, and where your customers found you.

Why “Content Rules” 27 million articles are shared each day. 23% of status updates include a link to content. Besides creating your own content is a great way to get followers to click through to your website. “Do what you do best, and link to the rest” Make content shareable (include share button on websites like ShareThis/AddThis) Share relevant content for others to re-tweet, and you get promoted. (I call it the Giving Tree)

Interaction between Customers/Brands More than 1/2 of active Twitter users follow companies, brands, or products. Twitter is commonly used for requesting customer service issues be resolved. 25% of users follow a brand.

Use a Blog with Twitter 79% more Twitter followers for companies with a blog. (HubSpot) You can promote your own content relevant to your brand, but it isn’t direct self promotion, because it would be valuable to the reader. They will become advocates for your brand and promote you.

More Loyal to Companies I follow?

Keep ‘Em Short & Sweet You’re limited to 140 characters, but leave more room in your tweets to get re-tweets. I recommend at least 20 characters remaining when you tweet, but it depends on your Twitter name/handle. Have a call to action, and keep them to the point with focus.

Post Throughout the Day Think of time zones. If you’re a national business, use EST time, it is the most populated time zone. 48% of active users log on multiple times during the day. 64% check it at least once a day.

Twitter Clients web-based, offers tweet scheduling, conversation threading, messaging archives, unified inbox, multiple tweeters, tweets/DMs assigned to respond, brand search, initials of tweeter.’’ web-based client with tweet-scheduling, 3 columns for main timeline, mentions, DMs, link shortening, click tracking, file attaching.

Twitter Tools Timely, Using your last 199 tweets, it finds the tweets that didn’t get its full potential. it can auto- schedule tweets, tell you best times to tweet, and adapt to new behavior. Crowdbooster, Analyzes impressions, retweets, responses, and followers. It recommends the best times to tweet based on this data.

More Twitter Tools Social Mention - Alerts but for social media, monitor certain search terms on Twitter, blogs, news, and does sentiment analysis. Bit.ly - URL shortening service that will also track how many clicks a link receives with a graph by day.

More Twitter Tools 2 TweetEffect.com - See when/why you were unfollowed with tweets and the change in follower numbers. Twilert.com - Similar to Google Alerts, but tracks search terms and sends an digest of them.

Advanced Search - you can narrow down your search by phrases, words, terms, location, attitude, dates, and people. Monitor keywords, competitors, or search for leads.

ReTweets (RTs) “Retweet someone once and they will notice you, retweet someone often and they will remember you”. Before just clicking retweet, add something personalized to each tweet like a comment or your thoughts on it.

Dress Up Your Twitter Profile Dress your profile up with a headshot avatar. Pages with a human avatar are more followed. Use a site like to create a custom background with a background picture/logos, add in text to extend beyond the 160 characters biography limit. For your bio, explain what your company offers. What will you tweet?