Social network and "microblogging" started in 2006
Identified as the third most used social network service
Terms
Tweet: to send a message
Follow: receive a message each time the person updates
You can control if and how you receive messages from everyone or from specific people
You can set to mobile phone if you wish
Hashtag (#): designate messages that are related, such as an event, a group of people; it is a way to create groupings
Before using, search to see if someone else is using it
You can search for popular hashtags or the meaning of specific hashtags at http://thebounder.co.uk/tagref/, http://tagal.us and http://whatthetrend.com
An article on How to use Hashtags
Sites such as hashtags.org provides real time monitoring of topics
@ messages: a link to that twitter home page
Retweet: reposting a tweet while giving credit to the original tweeter
DM: a direct message to a specific user; that user must be following your tweets
Tweetup: create an event (see, for example, http://twtvite.com.
Fail Whale: Twitter experiences an outage
If you need help, go to the help page
If you receive spam, send a message to @spam
Reasons
meet people
learn about interesting people
find people: by name, by email or by brand
find people on other networks
check out the "suggested users" tab (by topic)
August 2009 study by Pear Analytics found
Notable Uses
The 2008 Presidential election
The 2009 Republican ethics lapse: the Republican Party in Connecticut set up fake Twitter accounts in the names of 33 Democratic members of the state legislature and sent out messages
Arrest of Daniel Knight Hayden who sent out tweets about violence at a teabag protest in Oklahoma
2007 California fires: those using Twitter kept their followers (who were often friends and neighbors) informed of their whereabouts and of the location of various fires minute by minute
2008 Mumbai attacks: eyewitness accounts; list of dead and injured; vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals needing blood donations
February 2009 Victoria bushfires in Australia: used to send out alerts
2009 health departments: H1N1 alerts
2009 Iranian Elections: rallying tool and way of communicating with outside world
2009 Brazilian Supreme Federal Court: posts daily planner of the ministers and important decisions
2010 Resignation by Sun's CEO: Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more
It is called "microblogging" because you are limited to 140 characters
How to shorten a message
use characters instead of words:
"+" instead of "and"
"2" instead of two, too or to
avoid punctuation
use abbreviations
Need help? Helpful sites make suggestions on how to shorten message
Using links? There are services which help you shorten the links
bit.ly -- shortens links to share; user can track views
is.gd -- shortens links to share; no tracking ability
twi.bz -- shortens links to share; allows some domain information in new URL
Searches can be done at http://search.twitter.com
quotes around phrases for "and"
to avoid a term use "-"
for either of terms, use "or"
Advanced search is available at http://search.twitter.com/advanced
Tracking trends:
http://whatthetrend.com
http://twitscoop.com
http://twopular.com (for a specific time period)
follow @tweetingtrends
Whom Should you Follow
http://mrtweet.net recommendations based on your specific activity
http://whoshouldifollow.com recommendations based on your specific activity
http://wefollow.com
http://twellow.com
http://trackingtwitter.com -- listing of the top media, entertainment, and consumer product feeds
http://twibs.com -- businesses on twitter
http://exectweets.com -- business executives who tweet
http://yammer.com -- people in your organization
http://presentlyapp.com -- enterprise collaboration
Why Tweet?
Drive people to your blog or webpage by providing context for it
If you want your tweets to show up on your webpage, go to http://twitter.com/widgets
If you want your tweets to show up on your facebook page go to apps.facebook.com/twitter OR apps.facebook.com/selectivetwitter
Publish a short story, article or a book by posting one line each day
@Genny_Spencer: diary of an Illinois farm girl
Fundraising campaigns for not for profit organizations (e.g., Haiti)
Boost your professional reputation
Of course that means you must post interesting material that is well written and must post regularly on a specific topic
Understand your customers
Why not Tweet?
People may hear what you have to say:
Gangs using Facebook, Twitter more often
UK criminal who taunted police arrested
How does a business start?
1. Listen first: Find out what people are saying about you
2. Have clear goals:
You must represent the business well
Create a custom background
You must not conflict with information sent via other marketing channels
Your goal is to build relationships
3. Integrate this channel of communication with other channels
integrate material
develop a way to respond, such as to complaints
4. Start slowly and build your presence (you can tract this on http://tweetstats.com/)
5. Select a tweeter who "gets it"
6. Manage staff
include the names of tweeters in the bio (160 characters)
sign message with the initials of the poster
7. Coordinate accounts
Create a page on your website with all accounts at your company
Create a list of other, relevant Twitter accounts
8. Make sure you are "findable"
use company name in the "full name"
identify individual in the description
9. Be conversational
10. Retweet customers
11. Offer solid customer support
12. Post primarily about your company
13. Link creatively to your own sites
14. Use this medium for promotions, contests and sales announcements ("you heard it here first")
15. Reveal the human side of the organization
16. use url shorteners (see earlier sites)
17. Engage journalists, PR people
follow HARO: posts inquiries from reporters looking for sources
follow media people who cover your sector
Tools for business accounts
http://twist.flaptor.com -- incidence of different topics
http://tweepdiff.com -- companies following different accounts
http://cotweet.com -- allows you to manage multiple accounts
When Should Your CEO or Executive Director Just Say No To Social Media (borrowed from How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change)
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Of course, using social media may not be for every CEO or Executive Director. If they can't sustain their presence on Twitter or blogging, they should stay away. This isn't to say that they can't have an assistant who might do some of the scanning and flag items to respond to, but if a CEO starts engaging with people on social media channels and then there is silence - that is not a good thing.
It is also important that CEOs and Executive don't just tweet or blog for the sake of doing it. They should must have something to day that is of value or use it for relationship building. Finally, if the CEO cannot take public criticism or wants to have control over what followers or commenters say, then they shouldn't use it and delegate the role someone else in the company or organization.
Tips
- 1. Listen First: Before jumping in, it is useful to do some listening first. Are there other organizations or businesses in your sector where CEOs or Executive Directors are using social media. Find those and review how they are using it.
- 2. Safe Place to Practice: It is a good idea to do a little bit of coaching with your CEO or Executive Director to show them how Twitter works and to avoid too much "public learning." Some organizations use software like Yammer which is an internal Twitter to practice before setting up on Twitter.
- 3. Get Past Information Overload: It is important to let busy CEOs know that they don't have to be on Twitter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is also a good idea because the thought of opening up another communications channel might be overwhelming for a CEO is already concerned about email and information overload. Help them learn a quick and efficient way to use Twitter.
- 4. Pick a Small Project First: Before launching a CEO blog or CEO Twitter account, it might make sense for the CEO to start off using the organization's branded account or blog, particularly if they are not very comfortable with the tools or plan to devote a small amount of time.
- 5. Share Unique CEO/Executive Director Insights: CEOs have perspectives that others in the organization may not. Whether using Twitter or writing blog posts, they should share their thought leadership, know how, and vision with their fans and followers. A good way to do this is share what they are reading and learning.
- 6. Let Them Be Who They Are: CEOs and executive directors who are using social media, above, just need to be themselves and let their personality shine through.
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Metrics for Success
1. Post count - the number of times you've tweeted in a given time frame
2. Replies - the number of times another person's tweet has started with @username in a given time frame
3. Retweets - The number of times you're tweets have been "retweeted" in a given time frame
4. Mentions - the number of times your username was included in a tweet (but wasn't considered a reply)
5. Friends & followers
Is this technology sustainable? Check out Gartner's Hype Cycle
They say:
| Microblogging. Microblogging, in general, and Twitter, in particular, have exploded in popularity during 2009 to the extent that the inevitable disillusionment around "channel pollution" is beginning. As microblogging becomes a standard feature in enterprise social software platforms, it is earning its place alongside other channels (for example, e-mail, blogging and wikis), enabling new kinds of fast, witty, easy-to-assimilate exchanges. |
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