Simple business outreach using twitter
An article on FoxNews.com brought up a few introductory tips for businesses using twitter. The key points are following:
1) Use an application: Twitter.com is just one way to access Twitter updates. Applications like Twhirl, Tweetdeck and Twitterrific give you a lot more control over what you see on the screen and keep your contacts and topics organized and characterized. Twitter will make it faster and easier to post your own items as @replies, direct messages, and web links. It is very efficient to link your Twitter account with other social networking pages like Facebook.
2) Get followers through common interests or industries: During signup, Twitter will let you scan your e-mail address books to see which of your friends are using the service. Since the key to having a good experience is following the updates from people you care about, this is a vital step to getting started. Pay attention when Twitter suggests following several popular celebrities — you might not want to hear all of their tweets.
You can find followers who are related to your business and special interests through Twellow.com, TweetFind.com, and search.twitter.com. For example, a publicist who is a beginner can engage in conversations through the #journchat (simulation twitter chatroom).
3) Break through the clutter and make yourself attractive: This is very important. When you engage, comment, retweet and share links you become more memorable than handing out your business card. Unlike other social networking services like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter should NOT be a “who has more friends” contest. The key is to build quality lists of business contacts who are trusted advisors and potentially a source of business referrals.
4) Ten to one rule for business expansion: No more than 10 percent of your tweets should be self promotion. For example: Don’t miss @IACEZ on FOX News. Ninety percent should be about personal thoughts or ideas, marketing relevant information and engaging with your Twitter community. We briefly touched upon hashtagging and retweeting. When you first join, look at the public timeline or special interest groups for information that would be of interest to your constituents. Respond to or ReTweet 4 or 5 of them a day. For example:
RT@TheNYTimes Chrysler and Union Agree to Deal Before Federal Deadline http://bit.ly/otvXT
#followfriday in honor of SaaS:@iacez @crakowitz @benkepes @sunir @cloudworks @dobesv
5) Beware of Privacy issues and public disclosure: It is urgent to remember that Twitter is an open forum: Everything you type can be seen by anyone who follows you, and by default anyone who wants to follow you. Your tweets are also catalogued through Google. You can, however control access to your updates:
— If you want to block random users from following you, you can set your account to “protected.” Then when users want to follow you, you’ll have to approve them.
This is useful if you want to use Twitter as a private communications medium, but you shouldn’t over-control your Twitter account.
If you have something you want to say and you don’t want the Twitter world to see it, put it elsewhere. Twitter works best when you join its larger community.
— There’s a protocol on Twitter for replying to particular user’s updates. If you want to comment on something someone else said, write@and then their name in your post (or “Tweet”). For example, “@IAC_Heather, Interesting point.” Then the user will see what you said even if they are not following you, and anyone else who sees the update will know it’s a reply to another user.
— Direct messaging or (DM) is a way to send someone on Twitter a message that they will only see. In order to use it, preface your post with D, for example “D IAC_Heather Please call me at 212-222-2222 accounting emergency.” However you can only DM someone who is following you, so if you want the person you’re messaging to be able to DM you back, make sure you’re getting their updates. Type F (for follow) and then the user’s name. I.e.: F IAC_Heather. A follow command will be recognized by Twitter but won’t show up in your list of updates as a post.
