How To Effectively Market Your Company & Personal Brand on Twitter Alan See CMO - Vice President MindLeaders Page intentionally left blank. Introduction Many small business owners as well as Fortune 500 executives are still trying to figure out Twitter. The service is only 5 years old and yet it has become a part of worldwide conversation. A Google search on “Twitter” now generates over 2.8 billion hits and it’s something we hear mentioned on TV and in the media every day. Still, is Twitter only a passing fad? Why should small business owners or professional marketers care about Twitter as a marketing tool? www.mindleaders.com 01 Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................... 1 How to effectively market your company & personal brand on Twitter Why should you care about Twitter............................................................................................................................. 3 Building a social-ready organization........................................................................................................................... 4 Developing your Twitter strategy Executive level support and involvement is critical..................................................................................................... 5 Twitter Strategy Checklist............................................................................................................................................ 7 Getting started “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”......................................................................... 9 Processes that will support your Twitter strategy Think like a publisher................................................................................................................................................. 11 Ongoing platform education will be necessary Your employees are ambassadors for your brand and you don’t want to keep them in a social vacuum.............. 15 Twitter Training Outline.............................................................................................................................................. 15 Technology supporting your Twitter strategy Applications cross functional areas and you will need the CMO, CIO and CFO working together......................... 19 The CMO's Twitter Toolkit The Twitter technology I use most often.................................................................................................................... 21 The 6 most frequently asked questions about Twitter strategy How do you do it so effectively.................................................................................................................................. 25 Why Twitter................................................................................................................................................................ 25 How do we internally sell social media to the C-Suite.............................................................................................. 25 Should we call a social media expert....................................................................................................................... 27 Should we worry about our employee’s personal brands......................................................................................... 27 How do I use Twitter for Event Marketing.................................................................................................................. 28 What is Twitter advertising......................................................................................................................................... 29 Case Studies How Twitter list can help with reputation management............................................................................................ 31 Why you should not use automated direct messages on Twitter ............................................................................ 32 02 www.mindleaders.com How to Effectively Market Your Company & Personal Brand on Twitter Why should you care about Twitter? Small business owners & marketing professionals One important reason to care is because Twitter, with its almost ubiquitous accessibility through the net, smart phones, tablet computers, and now even via your car, can be considered an instant communication tool that is on 24/7 from anywhere you happen to be. Also, there’s good reason tweets are limited to 140 characters - the microblogging social network was developed specifically with mobile in mind and 140 characters is the size limit for a text message. That means it’s perfect for reaching the on-the-go consumer. As smartphones continue to grow in popularity, social networking services such as Twitter will get more and more traffic from mobile use, and many marketers wouldn’t be surprised to see mobile access overtake other methods of access at some point in the future. Another important reason to care about Twitter is that it has become a standard media outlet channel for both local and global audiences. While it took Twitter three years, two months and one week to reach the first billion tweets, there are now more than one billion tweets sent per week. Without a doubt, Twitter has become a prolific channel for sharing links to interesting articles, blog posts, photographs, and anything else you might find online. In order to take advantage of these platform features and effectively market your personal and corporate brands on Twitter, you may need to examine your marketing mindset. If your mindset is typically focused on one way communications and is most comfortable in the traditional media world of mass marketing then you’ll need to prepare for drastic change because the best use of Twitter is not as a direct marketing or push marketing platform. While a certain degree of self-promotion for business is expected on Twitter, flat-out and repeated posts only about yourself and what you are selling will most likely result in your followers abandoning you. When leveraged correctly though, Twitter is a fun platform to use to connect, engage, and build credibility and trust with your digital audience. www.mindleaders.com 03 Building a social-ready organization Are you friending, linking, tweeting and blogging? Social media is driving a wave of human interaction around the world. My @AlanSee Twitter page currently references over 12K tweets and nearly 40K followers. Those are fairly low numbers when compared to many avid Twitter users; although high enough to rank in the top one percent of users according to Twitter Grader. But what does it all mean? Do social media sites encourage people and brands to concentrate on their number of connections rather than build actual relationships? Is social media best used by individuals; or will it really change the way organizations engage their customers? And what about the ROI; is the return on relationships something that can, or even should be measured? Some marketers are still eager to list the reasons why they don’t believe in Twitter or any other social media platforms: • It’s for self-promoters or the unemployed. • It’s for teenagers. • It’s just over-sharing too much trivial babble. • It doesn’t directly drive sales leads. • I can’t control the marketing message. • There is no measurable ROI. While all those may be true in isolated cases, you’re not doing your organization any favors by dismissing the game-changing power behind the new social media applications. At a high-level, social media marketing is about influencing the customer experience by engaging in dialogue with the customer in order to build a trusted relationship over time. To make a social-ready transformation an organization may need to adopt a new mind-set. Enterprise transformations involve strategy, technology and processes, and a social media transformation is no different in that respect. I like to closely consider these competency areas related to social media marketing and, in particular, Twitter. 1.Strategy: How well does your social media plan support your overall marketing strategy and desired customer experience? 2.Technology: Do you have the technology and infrastructure support to achieve your social media goals and objectives? 3.Processes: Do you have the operational processes in place to support your social media goals and objectives? You’re not doing your organization any favors by dismissing the game-changing power behind the new social media applications. 04 www.mindleaders.com Developing Your Twitter Strategy Executive level support and involvement is critical. The right Twitter goals for you are going to be heavily dependent upon your business goals and objectives. And let’s face it: Most goals are put in place in order to solve problems. So, what problems are you trying to solve? Drive more traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, and improve your customer experience? Who will be in charge of developing, managing, and monitoring your Twitter activity? When blueprinting a Twitter strategy, often enthusiasm and support derail when examining the resources and commitment to keep a vibrant profile in place. A word of caution: This is not an initiative to turn over to your marketing intern. Publishing content is a complex process and Twitter is a major communication channel that merits executive level attention. In fact, social media in general calls for every Chief Marketing Officer to focus on this new media. Just consider a C-Suite conversation on the topic … www.mindleaders.com 05 As you can see, social media requires the attention and support of the entire executive team. It’s because social media is much more than a new approach to marketing; it’s something that cuts across the entire enterprise. In that kind of situation, what you’re ultimately looking for is seamless interaction between strategy, technology and processes across all the functional areas. The following checklist will help you get started with your Twitter strategy. 06 www.mindleaders.com Twitter Strategy Checklist The primary goals of our Twitter strategy are: [Goal 1] [Goal 2] [Goal 3] Twitter Champion: [Owner] [Team Members] What is the main role of your account? Relationship Building Customer Service Special Offers or Direct Sales CSR or Innovation Information Staff Engagement or Recruitment Influencer & Media Engagement News (not just press releases) Crisis Management Specific Event Specific Campaign Promotion One Time Competition Other: What tone of voice will your corporate Twitter account speak in? Who is the target audience for your Twitter account? Customers / Consumers Journalists / Media Bloggers Industry Influencers & Trade Bodies Competitors Celebrities Staff / Potential Recruits Other: What tools will the team use to monitor the account? Have these tools been vetted with IT organization? Free Tools (manual): Software Platforms: Other: What other platforms will be linked to your Twitter account? Blog Another Twitter or microblog account Facebook, other social networking site Flickr, other visual content site YouTube, Vimeo, other video site LinkedIn, other business networking site Location based apps (Foursquare / Gowalla) Owned media (brand website, et al) Other: Success metrics: Follower count Influence of followers ReTweets and sentiment @ Replies and sentiment @ Mentions and sentiment Inclusion in Follow Friday lists Traffic to the website linked in the Bio Traffic to links in tweets Ideas and insights gained from followers Positive mentions outside of Twitter Direct Sales Other Business Results: Other: What is your follower strategy? How will you attract followers? Provide valuable content to attract followers Earned media Leverage owned media (URL on profile, etc.) Integrate paid media (advertising, etc.) campaigns Leverage technology such as TweetAdder What is your following strategy? Follow everyone that follows us Follow only relevant users that follow us Proactively follow relevant users Do not follow anyone www.mindleaders.com 07 Page intentionally left blank. 08 www.mindleaders.com Getting Started: How Is Your Twitter Curb Appeal? “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” Think about what first attracted you to your home. Your initial impression as you pulled up and viewed the unique landscape and exterior architecture. Realtors call it “curb appeal.” First impressions are important, as we all remember this warning: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” In fact, psychologists, writers, and seminar leaders caution that we only have from seven to seventeen seconds of interacting with strangers before they form an opinion of us. With so much at stake have you considered your Twitter curb appeal? What I’m talking about are the elements of your Twitter page that can be personalized in a way to make your personal brand quickly stand out. Just consider these Twitter factoids from the folks at HubSpot: •59% of users fail to provide a web address in their profile •47% have not entered a bio in their profile •Accounts with profile pictures have 10 times more followers than those without Why are these points important? Because, when people are deciding whether to follow you they quickly look at your bio information, web address, picture icon, page background, location and recent updates to get a sense of who you really are. In short, your Twitter page is an extension of your personal brand. For that reason you should make sure your Twitter profile supports your personal branding goals and objectives. There are five areas of your page that you should focus on: 1. Profile picture. Pick something that fits the personal brand you want to project. In short, if you want people to take you seriously, don’t use an unprofessional picture. Also, consider how you may want to extend your personal brand across other social media platforms. In my case, I use the same profile picture for both Twitter and Facebook. I use a more formal picture for LinkedIn. 2. Bio information. Twitter only gives you 160 characters in this space so think about your personal elevator pitch. Say what you need to say, but don’t be afraid to let some of your personality show through. In addition, think about key word searches that might be run on the bio section through applications like Tweet Adder or Refollow to make sure your profile would surface. www.mindleaders.com 09 3. Website URL. Think about where you would want to redirect viewers for additional information. I use LinkedIn because it is recognized by most business professionals. I would not recommend using a URL shortener for this space. Your potential followers may not feel comfortable clicking on a link they don’t recognize, and at this point you don’t want to do anything that would discourage engagement. 4. Location. Some people feel uncomfortable disclosing their location. I believe the risk is worth the reward and that you’ll increase your chances of being found during relevant searches if you display both your city and state. Again, key applications like Tweet Adder and Refollow can leverage location information. 5. Background. Twitter offers several of their own backgrounds. However, if you’re looking to make your personal brand stand out I would recommend a customized background. There are no mulligans or do-overs when it comes to first impressions, so take the time to personalize your Twitter page. The extra effort shows your followers that you’re serious about your personal brand, and that encourages them to take you seriously, too. 1 Profile picture 1 2 2 Bio information 3 4 3 Website URL 4 Location 5 Background 5 10 www.mindleaders.com Processes that will Support Your Twitter Strategy Think like a publisher. Before you can contribute to Twitter in a compelling way, you must have something worthy to say—something relevant to share with your audience. For that reason your organization needs to think more like a publisher and develop a process for creating content. This is where it is also important to assign a Twitter community manager because if the entire company is responsible for your corporate Twitter content, then nobody is really responsible. The following are content artifacts and how to distribute them. Tactic Article • Post on your website. Create a registration process to capture leads. • Tweet with a link to the article. Use Bit.ly in order to track activity. • Also post on Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn that your article is available. Blog • Tweet and link to your post. • Also post a link to your blog entry on Facebook and LinkedIn. Case Study • Post your case study collection on your website. Create a registration process to capture leads. • Reference case studies in articles and blogs – and link to them. • Tweet with a link to the case study. E-newsletter • Use Twitter to inform your audience that a new issue has been released. • Also release on Facebook and LinkedIn Webinar • Promote your webinar on Twitter by telling the audience what they’ll learn and the key takeaways you’ve got planned for them. White Paper • Use Twitter, FB, and LinkedIn to announce its availability. Create a registration process in order to capture the lead. www.mindleaders.com 11 What else should I tweet? How can I tweet information related to myself or company without sounding like an advertising commercial? The following will help: Quotes, both original and sourced, often get attention. And remember, in most cases when someone retweets you, or even better, when they “favorite” your tweet, that means what you have said really resonates with their feelings. Take a look at the Henry Ford quote outlined in red. 50+ retweets and favorited 7 times. That tweet definitely influenced a lot of people. Now, ask yourself, “Where can I come up with some quotes related to my organizations activities?” I’ll bet you can also create some more on your own. In my example, education and career development are related to my company’s activity. Here is a time-saving tip: Don’t be afraid to recycle your successful tweets. Case in point: I used the Henry Ford quote in December and then again in January. Remember, over time you are collecting new followers and they haven’t seen some of your older posts. And many of your followers may not have been logged into Twitter at the time you sent your original tweet so that potential audience never saw your communication in the first place. Recycling tweets is OK as long as you let some degree of time pass. Interesting quotes can be used again... �Favorite’ your successful ones & recycle them. 1 12 2 www.mindleaders.com People love lists. And lists that contain interesting factoids generally do well. 1 This particular tweet was retweeted 3 times and favorited 4 times 2 Also, you can see that I’m ranked #4 on the list mentioned 3 and that mention has the potential to drive traffic back to our corporate website. So, let’s count the benefits with this particular tweet: retweeted and favorited. Someone from our company is mentioned and it can drive traffic to our website. That’s a 4-for-1 special without having to blaringly hawk our corporate brand. In summary, look for helpful and interesting lists and tweet them to your followers. 1 3 2 www.mindleaders.com 13 Page intentionally left blank. 14 www.mindleaders.com Ongoing Platform Education Will Be Necessary Your employees are ambassadors for your brand and you don’t want to keep them in a social vacuum. So, as you take steps to use social media to help improve your customer experience you’re going to need a process in place to educate and train your workforce. In addition, there are scores of applications and platforms related to the Twitter ecosystem and you just can’t learn them all in a one hour training session. Even if you could, not all applications will make it in the long run due to business model and/or funding issues. So, get ready to learn, unlearn and learn again as the Twitter interface evolves and various support applications come and go. In general, I like to evaluate these applications and platforms based on efficiency and effectiveness, but first let’s start with a general Twitter training outline you might consider. Twitter Training Outline: Twitter Basics •Twitter 101: Getting Started on Twitter...................................................................................... http://bit.ly/ceuKuq •The Twitter Glossary ................................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/bclIoU •How To Sign Up on Twitter ......................................................................................................http://bit.ly/8ZXCDk •Frequently Asked Questions......................................................................................................http://bit.ly/9KSzlM •Welcome to Twitter Support!......................................................................................................http://bit.ly/ahqXvF Using Twitter Profile & Account Settings •How To Change Your Profile Picture or Information .................................................................http://bit.ly/dnz9nB •How To Customize Your Twitter Design .................................................................................... http://bit.ly/aszLcS •How To Change or Recover Your Password........................................................................... http://bit.ly/a6DM9q •How To Change Your Email Preferences .................................................................................. http://bit.ly/g3lMkF •How To Change Your Username...............................................................................................http://bit.ly/bm3vru •How To Deactivate Your Account ............................................................................................http://bit.ly/bJqmcL •About Account Restoration...................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/bGXRd5 •How To Change Language Settings .......................................................................................http://bit.ly/bSKE1m •About Public and Protected Accounts .................................................................................... http://bit.ly/dy7M4O •I’m Having Trouble Confirming My Email ................................................................................. http://bit.ly/i2Zf8H Marketing Tips •Twitter Tips and Other Topics of B2B Social Media.................................................................. http://bit.ly/f25GVc •10 Dos and Don’ts for Brands on Twitter..........................................................................http://on.mash.to/cjjnNe •7 Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing......................................................................... http://bit.ly/9sv0Mn www.mindleaders.com 15 Finding & Following People on Twitter •About Twitter Limits (Update, API, DM, and Following)............................................................http://bit.ly/gU62Ra •How to Use Twitter’s Suggestions for Who to Follow.................................................................http://bit.ly/fT6Vbc •How to Follow Others..................................................................................................................http://bit.ly/9Y3dIu •What Is Following?.................................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/cyGAzB •How To Unfollow Users on Twitter.......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/bKm8YO •How To Block Users on Twitter................................................................................................. http://bit.ly/cS69vH •About Twitter Suggestions: Browse Interests..........................................................................http://bit.ly/hXUBNP •How To Find People on Twitter: Twitter Search!........................................................................http://bit.ly/c2kpYo •How To Find Friends and Colleagues on Twitter........................................................................ http://bit.ly/9icLqc •Following Rules and Best Practice.......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/aLXZNn •Building a Twitter Following in a Week....................................................................................http://t.co/NpzbwWa •Using Twitter as a Competitive Research Tool....................................................................... http://t.co/CPdHD8e Using Tweets & Messages •What is a Timeline?...................................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/d4Arti •How to Shorten Links (URLs).....................................................................................................http://bit.ly/aeuT80 •How to Post Photos/Videos on Twitter.......................................................................................http://bit.ly/anWkre •Types of Tweets and Where They Appear...............................................................................http://bit.ly/9UGd7N •How To Post a Tweet................................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/iiSnv7 •About Tweets (Twitter Updates)................................................................................................http://bit.ly/c3oFPU •What Is a Direct Message? (DM)............................................................................................. http://bit.ly/9dZ9AG •What are @Replies and Mentions?.......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/cexXLk •What Are Top Tweets?..............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/bOdegk •How To Delete a Tweet...............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/9Eef80 •How To Tweet With Your Location..............................................................................................http://bit.ly/gvR8yt •What Are Hashtags (“#” Symbols)?..........................................................................................http://bit.ly/c300dg •What Is Retweet? (RT)...............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/a1WZh8 •How To Link Directly to an Individual Tweet........................................................................... http://bit.ly/akYMHm Performing Twitter Search •How To Find People on Twitter: Twitter Search!....................................................................... http://bit.ly/a2Wz61 •How To Find Friends and Colleagues on Twitter....................................................................... http://bit.ly/bezxbV •About Twitter’s Top Search Results..........................................................................................http://bit.ly/hVnCAo •How to Save Searches.............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/doTUMS •How To Use Advanced Twitter Search Operators..................................................................... http://bit.ly/dzqLIC Using Twitter Features •About Twitter’s Link Service (http://t.co)..................................................................................... http://bit.ly/agIrsU •The Tweets Application for LinkedIn......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/aeCckX •About Trending Topics............................................................................................................. http://bit.ly/9m91TA •How To Use Twitter Lists.......................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/9Ve8MU •About Verified Accounts.............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/cnyKdo •About the Tweet Location Feature............................................................................................. http://bit.ly/h1Oj3u •What Are Favorites?...................................................................................................................http://bit.ly/aUefwY •What are Promoted Tweets?....................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/igNlXV •What are Promoted Trends?..................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/e40HLn •What are Promoted Accounts?................................................................................................. http://bit.ly/gazRuX Linking Twitter to Your Blog or Website •How to Add the Tweet Button to Your Website.............................................................................http://bit.ly/hSIEIj •How To Link Directly to an Individual Tweet.............................................................................http://bit.ly/bAKR4n •How To Use Twitter With Facebook......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/9M2Q92 •How To Link From Your Website To Your Twitter Account....................................................... http://bit.ly/aiPWFg •About Twitter Badges and Widgets......................................................................................... http://bit.ly/ddkHhH 16 www.mindleaders.com Understanding Twitter Online Safety & Privacy •Safety: Fake Twitter Emails.......................................................................................................http://bit.ly/d6WPxe •About Public and Protected Accounts........................................................................................ http://bit.ly/akTzPl •Safety: Keeping Your Account Secure........................................................................................ http://bit.ly/9dMvff •How To Connect and Revoke Third-Party Applications............................................................. http://bit.ly/fDhR0z Following Twitter Guidelines & Best Practices •Rules and Best Practices.............................................................................................................http://bit.ly/cI0Hxr •About Twitter Limits (Update, API, DM, and Following).............................................................http://bit.ly/9WIAJu •How To Report Spam on Twitter................................................................................................ http://bit.ly/8XI6Cz •Guidelines for Contests on Twitter.............................................................................................. http://bit.ly/a89Ti6 •Automation Rules and Best Practices.........................................................................................http://bit.ly/9xGLI3 •How To Connect and Revoke Third-Party Applications.............................................................. http://bit.ly/fcPurp •The Twitter Rules....................................................................................................................... http://bit.ly/bs0E7P General Business Advice •50 Power Twitter Tips.................................................................................................................http://bit.ly/9CiSZE •Top 20 Sites to Improve Your Twitter Experience.......................................................... http://on.mash.to/aQunna •Spring Cleaning Your Twitter Account.............................................................................http://on.mash.to/cJ9xZ9 •26 Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets........................................................................................... http://bit.ly/9tNuns •The Complete Guide to Getting the Most Out of Twitter.......................................................... http://bit.ly/5nZDq8 •Twitter Content Strategy: 4 Reasons Why Everyone’s Content is King....................................... http://bit.ly/8Y1ild •3 Alternative Ways to Find Great Content to Tweet.....................................................................http://bit.ly/b3Klfk •What Should I Tweet? 5 Ways to Find Great Content for Your Followers................................ http://bit.ly/95nU6m •What is a Twitter Chat and HOW TO: Easily Join One Using TweetGrid.................................. http://bit.ly/bKAtUA •21 Tips for Using Twitter and Facebook for Business............................................................... http://bit.ly/cv6rKw •6 Important Lessons Learned from One Japanese Company’s Major Tweeting Mistake......http://bit.ly/bZWawX •How Your Business Can Tweet Better with Hootsuite...............................................................http://bit.ly/d2iLMX Customer Service •Is Your Customer Service Ready for Social Media?.................................................................. http://bit.ly/c9x943 •Twitter Should Not be a Last Resort for Your Customer Service Department.......................... http://bit.ly/aQHSrJ •HOW TO: Deal With an Angry Customer Tweeting.....................................................................http://bit.ly/a3jRSJ Monitoring Twitter •10 Ways to Track What People are Saying About You on Twitter............................................... http://bit.ly/igr0IU Insightful Analysis •Twitter: 10 Psychological Insights...............................................................................................http://bit.ly/ajz7Rd •Replies and Retweets on Twitter............................................................................................... http://bit.ly/bL31qC •How to Get Your Messages Retweeted.....................................................................................http://bit.ly/ucNeCt •Four Ways of Looking at Twitter................................................................................................. http://bit.ly/bhfoAV •Think About It: Your Twitter Username is Your New Email Address...........................................http://bit.ly/b3rQPf Followers and Influence •Followers Don’t Equal Influence.............................................................................................. http://bit.ly/baBP0O •Are Twitter Followers Better Than Facebook Fans?................................................................ http://bit.ly/cw7EDB •The Most Influential Consumers Online are on Twitter............................................................. http://bit.ly/bv5FdE Personal Branding •Understanding Why Personal Branding Matters....................................................................... http://bit.ly/d16IB5 www.mindleaders.com 17 Page intentionally left blank. 18 www.mindleaders.com Technology Supporting Your Twitter Strategy Applications cross functional areas and you will need the CMO, CIO and CFO working together. Related to network security, what social platforms are necessary to bring your strategy to life? And are you prepared to open those gates? There are still many companies that block sites like Twitter and Facebook. What desktop applications might need to be acquired in order to bring your strategy into compliance? We use Tweet Deck for one element of compliance. But we also use a combination of applications to help with our brand acceleration strategy. The process of acquiring, loading and updating applications may not be a big deal for a small business because a small business owner general wears all the CXO hats. But in the Fortune 100 world it can be one of those major stress situations! How will you handle exceptions related to strategy, technology and process requests? What happens when the CMO and CIO need to agree to disagree? I’ve tried the hammer and the 2- by -4 and they don’t work. How will Marketing and IT find a way to compromise with an acceptable level of risk for both executives? And finally, don’t overlook the traditional link between sales and marketing. Conversations between customers, prospects and partners are in play in many of the social channels. So, you want to make sure those conversations are coordinated in relation to your sales process. www.mindleaders.com 19 Page intentionally left blank. 20 www.mindleaders.com The CMO’s Twitter Toolkit The Twitter technology I use most often Efficiency and Effectiveness: Applications and platforms that help get the greatest impact out of Twitter. Dashboards for Tweeting These tools act as a single point of contact for your Twitter activities, as well as other forms of social media. While there are differences between the following dashboards there is no clear technological winner. So, your personal preference and the way you work will inform your choice. My application of choice within this product set is TweetDeck. HootSuite A social media dashboard, available as website and and desktop client. MarketMeSuite A social media marketing dashboard for business, available as website and and desktop client. Seesmic A social media dashboard, available as website and and desktop client (with version2 of the desktop app being written in Microsoft Silverlight). TweetDeck A social media dashboard (desktop client) owned by Twitter. TweetGlide A social media dashboard (desktop client by Mike Filsaime), based on the Adobe Air platform. twhirl A social media dashboard (desktop client), based on the Adobe Air platform. Manage Followers These tools help manage followers and whom you are following. Many provide additional functionality as well. Applications I use within this set include TweetAdder and Refollow. BrandChirp A web based Twitter tool that allows you to monitor and manage all brand activity. Commun.it A Twitter app that helps build meaningful, personal relationships with a focus on the high-value relationships (influencers, supporters, most engaged members, etc.), helping grow engagement and build real connections within the social space. www.mindleaders.com 21 Contaxio Contact management for your social networks. FollowFormation A Twitter tool that helps users follow dozens of categorized Twitter users with just one click. Users are able to choose their categories of interest and preview the people in these categories. Users can also create a custom category. FriendOrFollow Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? GoTwitr An automation tool that helps you grow your Twitter community and manage users; Automates following and tracking. ManageFlitter A web-based Twitter management tool that helps you manage who you follow, discover who isn’t following you back, uncover inactive accounts you follow, and search the contents of your Twitter stream. Mentionmapp Presents a map of mentions. Each user is connected to the people and hashtags they mentioned the most in recent tweets. Nearby Tweets A geography-centric Twitter tool (localizing Twitter) for social networking, building customer relationships, and monitoring real-time buzz. Pluggio Pluggio (formerly known as Tweetminer) is a web based Twitter app developed by Justin Vincent. It allows you to manage nearly every aspect of the Twitter experience. It features RSS integration, content search, tweet scheduling, and user management functionality. refollow Discover, manage, and protect your Twitter social circle. SocialBro An Adobe Air desktop or Google Chrome application that helps you manage and interact with your Twitter community. Social WhoIs Who should you follow and why? Based on personal relevance instead of popularity. SocialToo Automates following, and tracking those who have stopped following you. Sprout Social A web-based Twitter management tool that offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, analytics and more for the small business, small brand, events, or agencies. Tweepi A Twitter management app with stats that allows you to follow, flush, reciprocate and clean up your Twitter account based on users’ activity, engagement, retweets and the like. Tweet Adder A desktop Twitter management application designed for the marketing community to automate the building of Twitter networks and manage incoming/outgoing direct messages, for the purpose of promoting your brand, website, charity, or event. 22 www.mindleaders.com TweetBig A management tool that helps you grow your Twitter community, manage direct messages and responses, and so much more. Automates following, and tracking those who have stopped following you. Tweeter Karma The Tweeter Karma list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. With Tweeter Karma, you can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can also filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends. tweetspinner This app does more than manage followers - it can schedule tweets, create rule based tweets, and manage DM inand out- boxes. Twentourage A Twitter app that allows you to recruit an manage your “Twentourage”. Twiends A Twitter application that helps you grow your social network. Twimailer A free service providing enhanced Twitter notifcations when someone follows you. Twitblocker A GreaseMonkey script that will temporarily silence chatty friends. Twitoria A web app that tidies up your Twitter friends list by revealing inactive friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can unfollow them. TwitterHolic Tracks the most popular Twitter users... those you may want to follow. UseQwitter See who has unfollowed you on Twitter. Receive a weekly email showing all your Twitter unfollowers. Helps you identify Twitter spammers and spam bots. Measure Influence These applications help measure or gauge your social influence. I have no idea how their analytics really work, but I’ll have to admit that I constantly check our Klout, Kred and PeerIndex scores. Klout A social media tool that measures your influence across the Web. Kred A tool to help you understand your Influence and outreach globally and within communities formed around interests and affinities. PeerIndex A social media app that help you understand your social capital. PROskore PROskore ranks professionals according to their overall reputation - which includes their social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc.) as well as their professional experience and recommendations they receive through the PROskore community. www.mindleaders.com 23 Page intentionally left blank. 24 www.mindleaders.com The 6 Most-Frequently Asked Questions About Twitter Strategy How do you do it so effectively? Question 1: Why Twitter? Isn’t Facebook more important? Answer: In short, depending on your targeted audience and strategic marketing plan they could both be important. The main point is that the platforms are not exclusive, as each is often used for a different purpose. Top 5 most important social-media platforms YouTube 23.6% 27.6% Linkedin 34.8% Blogs 40.0% Twitter Facebook 0% 49.1% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Most/Very Important Source: SmartBrief Question 2: How do we internally sell social media to the C-Suite? Answer: Most people will agree that practical experience is a good thing. In fact, if you’ve been around the block a time or two, the old adage “experience is the best teacher” is probably anchored in your mindset. When I reflect on my lessons learned through practical experience I always find Will Rogers’ perspective insightful, but also at times, troublesome: www.mindleaders.com 25 “The trouble with using experience as your guide is that sometimes the final exam comes first, then the lesson.” Why troublesome? After all, at one point or another we all start out as greenhorns. And let’s face it; there are situations we occasionally experience that are really not possible to prepare for. What I find troublesome is the negative impact on organizations when key executives continue to scoff at the lessons offered, or worse, they refuse to acknowledge they were even handed an exam. Are senior executives in your organization still scoffing at social media? In today’s environment your customer’s are testing your organizations ability to interact with them on social platforms in the same way you communicate with them through email and over the phone. In fact, you’ve probably seen the following factoids in several recent presentations: •25% of social media users are more likely to look into a brand advertising on social media – Adology •15% of these users are more likely to purchase from social media advertisers – Adology •46% of Internet users worldwide interact with social media on a daily basis -TNS •78.6% of consumers have joined a company’s community to get more information on the company – Universal McCann And yet some of your peers are still hesitant, or openly against implementing social media strategies into your organization. I suspect some are hesitant because they are not personally using social media, and if the truth were known, they’re still not concerned with learning. Even so, it’s time to let go of the notion that social media is just for kids and has no business value. In short, you don’t want the adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” to begin to be associated with your personal brand. Here are some brief observations to share with your leadership peers that might motivate them to sign up for a lesson or two. 1.Your words and actions are magnified by your position. Most of your actions will seem more important to your employees than you intend; merely teasing about the use or value of social media on your part may become dangerously distorted by your workers. It’s a critical time for you to provide executive level support for this high growth engagement channel. Keep this in mind; it’s not about you, it’s about your customers. If your customers want to communicate through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook who are you to stop them? 2.No need to boil the ocean. There are scores of social media related platforms and applications, so don’t be afraid to narrow your focus during your initial learning process. It’s too early to declare with authority the platforms that will remain standing, those that will be absorbed, or the ones that will fade away. For senior executives I would recommend focusing on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, in that order. Sidebar applications that help with efficiency and effectiveness (for example, TweetDeck for Twitter or various mobile applications for Facebook, etc) can wait. 3.You can't learn to swim without getting wet, so jump in. If nothing else, just commit to spending 15 – 20 minutes per day learning the ins and outs of a single platform. Once you develop a comfort level move to the next platform or application. If you have a trusted friend or colleague who is already social media savvy consider asking them to breakfast or out for a beer. Use the opportunity to pick their mind on the platforms they like to use, and how they strategically leverage those applications. If all else fails, hire someone to help you with your social media education. Based on my faculty, and consulting background I kind of like this idea! However, you may want to start out by making an author happy and simply purchasing one of the many social media related publications on the market. 4.The clock is ticking. We’ve moved from a time of mass communications to one of masses of communicators; your customers are sharing their experiences through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms at a rate that will continue to accelerate. As a result, social media should become a part of every organizations risk management and customer engagement strategy. That means the entire leadership team (CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, Sales, Legal and HR) will feel the impact. You know from experience that it always takes more time than expected to secure cross functional support. So, it’s time to start building bridges. 26 www.mindleaders.com Question 3: Should we call in a social media expert? Answer: There is a story that is told of Henry Ford about a breakdown in his assembly line that no one on his staff could fix. As the story goes, his production lines were down for hours; hours turned into days, and Henry was frustrated. In desperation he called an electrical engineer friend whom he trusted to come to his plant, diagnose, and repair the problem. His friend promptly arrived and after spending about ten minutes the Ford lines were up and running. A most grateful Henry Ford thanked him and told his friend to invoice the Ford Company for the repairs. A few days later Henry Ford received an invoice from his friend in the amount of $10,000. Flabbergasted, Henry called his friend on the telephone and protested, “You only tinkered around for ten minutes! Ten-thousand dollars?!” His friend agreed that he would re-invoice the repairs. A few days later Henry Ford received a modified invoice: Tinkering - $10 Knowing where to Tinker - $9,990 Knowing where to Twitter …. There is a structured path to becoming an electrical engineer. And based on the outcome of the story, Henry’s friend was either very lucky or clearly knew what he was doing. The road to becoming a social media marketing expert isn’t as clear. In fact, in today’s environment it’s often the subject line of marketing agency jokes. Still, if you believe there is a breakdown in your strategic marketing plan related to social media, here are a few questions to consider before calling in an expert: 1. Are my customers, prospects or other constituents on social media? That may sound like a ridiculous question to ask first; but why did you get into social media? Are you sure you need social media platforms? 2. Can you describe the elements of your program that don’t seem to be working? Again, that may come across as a silly question; but are your challenges related to strategy, technology or processes? The Social-Ready Assessment can help establish a baseline measurement on those key competencies areas. 3. What does the expert’s reputation appear to be in the social media space? Do I trust them? Are they practicing what they preach, and if so, are they any good? Engaging your brand in social media is easier said than done. So you may need to make room in your budget for paid council. Question 4: Should we worry about our employee’s personal brands? Answer: Personal Clout vs. Company Clout Somewhere in America, a business leader is standing in front of an audience prepared to use the phrase, “Our most important asset is our people.” Do you think they really mean it? What about other key assets? For example: 1. Real estate 2. Rights to natural resources like oil and gas 3. Cash reserves 4. Patents 5. The corporate brand OK, that’s not really a fair question because people are not something that’s owned by the company. Your “people” walk out the doors of your business every night. What would happen if they didn’t come back to work the next day? That could create a big mess, because for some organizations when you lose people you lose income. But still, nobody likes to be thought of as an object of production. So does the phrase “people are our competitive advantage” set a little better you? That one is not so great if you are a not-for profit organization. After all, who are they competing with? A phrase I’m starting to think is now closer to the mark is “our people are our most important source of influence.” In fact, some new tools like Klout can provide a very real look at how personal brands compare to corporate brands in the area of social influence. www.mindleaders.com 27 You can see in this example, a member of my MindLeaders marketing team (Troy Carlson) actually has a higher Klout score than the MindLeaders corporate brand. So who gave Klout all the clout? That’s a good point and I’m not going to argue whether Klout is the best measurement tool when it comes to measuring social influence. Why should an organization care if their employee’s have a strong personal brand? That’s a fair question; but I think you already know the answer. In general, people do business with other people they know, like and trust. Think about the combination of those three words for a minute. •Know •Like •Trust You’re talking about a very credible source packed with influence and value. And I’ll take a building full of employee’s like that any day of the week. Question 5: How do I use Twitter for Event Marketing? Answer: Twitter can offer limitless value in promoting your event. Here are some Twitter event-marketing recommendations: 1. For larger events only, create a new Twitter account that you can update all year long. 2. Establish and publicize a hashtag for your event. 3. Create separate Twitter lists of event speakers, sponsors, attendees and local restaurants and attractions. 4. Use Twitter search to find potential attendees and follow them. 5. Tweet about event-specific information including sessions, speakers, exhibitors, benefits of attending, etc. 6. Promote your event by running a contest. For example, give away a free or discounted registration for those that tweet about your event. 28 www.mindleaders.com Question 6: What is Twitter advertising? Answer: For complete details on Twitter advertising, go to Start Advertising page https://business.twitter.com/advertise/start/. Promoted Tweets: http://business.twitter.com/advertise/promoted-tweets/ Promoted Trends: http://business.twitter.com/advertise/promoted-trends/ www.mindleaders.com 29 Promoted Accounts: http://business.twitter.com/advertise/promoted-accounts/ 30 www.mindleaders.com Case Studies Case study 1: How Twitter Lists Can Help with Reputation Management How you use the strategy in this case: In November 2009 Twitter launched an interesting feature called 1 Twitter Lists. In short, Twitter Lists allow you to organize the profiles you’re following into groups. The filtering aspect of this feature is helpful if you are trying to zero in on something specific, such as Twitter users based on location, employer, or any other relevant categories. You can find the Lists under “view my profile.” If you’ve been 2 listed, that means you’ve caught someone’s attention. Something in your bio and/or the content of your tweets has made an impression. In the future, your Listor will be able to find you quickly because they filed your profile under a group they intend to monitor. In other words, your reputation or influence has been noted. Now, take a close look at how they’ve named and described the list that they have placed you in. That will give you an idea if your content or tweets are projecting the type of persona you desire. There can be worse things in life than to be called out for 3 CMO Influencers or Mentors of Leadership … so, in this situation I can be reassured that my social media reputation and influence is trending in the direction that I would like it to. This process works exactly the same for a corporate or business reputation. 2 3 1 www.mindleaders.com 31 Case Study 2: Why You Should Not Use Automated Direct Messages on Twitter How you use the strategy in this case: Automated Direct Messages on Twitter … Marketing Automation Run Amok? Imagine two people entering a crowded room. The first person bursts in and announces: "Here I am!" The second person walks in, looks you in the eye and says: "There you are!" Which person feels like they are engaging you at a personal level? Are you starting to feel a degree of rapport with one of them? My guess is that the second person already has you thinking that there might be some kind of special connection or shared interest. In fact, you’ve probably forgotten about the first person. Come on, admit it, you kind of like being the center of someone’s attention! Maybe not all of the time, but it does feel good when it happens for the right reason. By definition the center of attention implies a focused awareness. So, if you’re customer-focused that must mean your customers are at the center of your attention, right? Well, you wouldn’t get that impression based on some of the automated direct messages hitting my Twitter inbox lately. Take a look: OK, these examples are kind of over-the-top; but can you see how the focus is on the brand or individual self and not on their audience? Sure, they thank their audience for connecting, and are polite when they make their requests to visit the other sites, but it’s still all about them. The only thing I can hear is, “Here I am, come visit me on another site.” Wow, I’m feeling kind of annoyed because what I’m thinking is, “What’s your point and what’s in it for me? And by the way, I’m on Twitter because I like it, so why are you trying to immediately redirect me to another platform?” Is it really possible to be customer-focused with automated direct messages on Twitter? Well, it’s probably not impossible, but in my opinion I don’t believe automated DM’s will be perceived as valuable by most of your audience. And yes, that includes the automated messages that thank people for following. OK, you’re being polite, but that still feels kind of spammy. A “there you are” approach is relationship building because it’s centered on the audience, and that sets the stage for developing trust. Direct message strategies that capture attention without making a person feel like they are being stalked are not easy to design. That’s why highly-relevant and targeted communication strategies that nurture trust are a competitive advantage. 32 www.mindleaders.com Page intentionally left blank. www.mindleaders.com 33 About the Author: Alan See CMO - Vice President MindLeaders Alan See, Chief Marketing Officer at MindLeaders (http://www.mindleaders.com/), is a senior executive with the rare ability to speak Web 2.0 and Sales 101 in the same sentence. That skill means his grown children still wonder “what does dad really do all day at work?” He has also served as an associate faculty member at the University of Phoenix, where he loved to lecture but hated to grade papers! With over 25 years of industry experience, Alan is an active blogger and frequent presenter on topics that help organizations develop marketing strategies and sales initiatives to power profitable growth. He has performed for and interacts with some of the world’s most respected brands, including IBM, Cap Gemini, Teradata, SAS Institute, NCR Corporation and AT&T. Alan holds BBA and MBA degrees from Abilene Christian University. More About MindLeaders MindLeaders provides tailored e-based solutions for development, performance and managerial challenges at the individual and corporate level. Through comprehensive elearning services and fully integrative talent, performance and succession management resources, MindLeaders leverages three decades of experience to give clients across a number of diverse industries the tools and support to improve efficiency, accelerate growth and foster sustained success. MindLeaders operates from its global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and regional offices in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Visit mindleaders.com for more information. Catch Up with Us Follow Us Follow Us Connect with Us blog.mindleaders.com @mindleaders company/mindleaders facebook.com/mindleaders MindLeaders, Inc. USA 4675 Lakehurst Ct, Suite 300 Dublin, OH 43017 USA 800-223-3732 MindLeaders, LTD UK 36 Windsor Street Uxbridge, UB8 1AB UK +44 (0)20 8843 5500 MindLeaders Asia Pacific Level 1, 1 Queens Road Melbourne Victoria, 3004 AU 1300 308 826 MindLeaders Ireland No 1 Deansgrange Business Park Blackrock, Co Dublin IE +353 1 289 1989 info@mindleaders.com info@mindleaders.com info@icdl.com.au irlinfo@mindleaders.com www.mindleaders.com www.mindleaders.com/uk www.mindleaders.com/uk www.mindleaders.com/uk 2012 MindLeaders, Inc.® All rights reserved. All marks relating to MindLeaders, Inc. ® products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MindLeaders, Inc.® or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. TwitterAlanSee - MindLeaders - 20120605
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